


two birds of a feather

by leothequeenn



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Cashton, M/M, Muke - Freeform, One-Shots, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, i'll explain like whats gonna happen in each beginning note haha, these are gonna be a whole lot of oneshots i hope
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-30
Updated: 2015-11-03
Packaged: 2018-03-04 09:48:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 36
Words: 66,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3063311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leothequeenn/pseuds/leothequeenn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>little one-shots for muke and cashton because im both muke af and cashton af. there will be summaries of each one shot in the chapters :) xx</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. you're pretty [muke]

**Author's Note:**

> for this one shot, it's basically a genderbent au, where mikey thinks one girl in her chem class is really hot.

“No, I’m telling you, Cal, she’s _gorgeous_.”

“ _Michelene_ ,” Calum said and Michael refused to listen to her, since she had started off using her birth name and Michael already didn’t want to listen to the rest of what the black-haired girl was going to say anyway (but yet she found herself doing the opposite). “Just give it a rest and talk to her already.”

“But I can’t just go up to her and say hi, she’ll think I’m weird,” Michael grumbled, watching her toes wiggle underneath her sheets. It was three in the morning, Michael was up, and surprisingly, so was Calum. The blond haired girl couldn’t sleep since this thing had been bothering her but she never wanted to admit that. She could still remember how Lukah smiled whenever she got handed back a paper, and Michael just assumed she had gotten a good grade and that made everything better.

“When have you _ever_ cared if anyone thinks you’re weird?” Calum’s voice rang through her head and she snapped her attention back to the question. That was true, she never cared about if people think she’s weird but it was different for Lukah. Well, not really, but Michael liked to think so since she really did like her.

“Well, no, but--”

“Then what makes her any different? If anything she’s just gonna be weirder, I bet you anything.” Michael let the information sink in before pouting. But how could Lukah be weird? “I still think it’s kinda weird how you two hated each other.”

Oh. Right.

Michael had almost forgotten about that. That was last year, but it seemed like there had been a cease fire between the two of them, since they actually acted civil toward each other for a lab they had in chemistry last week (which, really wasn’t that bad, but Michael was too focused watching the girl move about and write on her paper to even care). “Well, yeah, but that’s over with now, so…”

“Well, what are you going to do about it? Do you want to be friends with her?” Calum asked after a moment of silence and Michael stared up at her ceiling. Did she want to be friends with her? Well, no, she wanted to suddenly be more, but that wasn’t the point, that couldn’t happen that quickly. “Mikey, answer, I’m falling asleep…”

“I mean, I guess so.” Michael answered immediately, a little sigh emitting from her lips.

“Just… Think it over, and then think of something that would make you go to sleep, we have school tomorrow and I need sleep, and you need sleep.” And with that Cal ended the phone call, and Michael stared up at her ceiling.

She didn’t get to sleep that night, though.

**.x.**

Walking into her Chemistry class should’ve been really easy, but whenever people weren’t sitting in their seats and the teacher was talking about something involving the seats, Michael knew that there was going to be a seating chart. Great, not only did she not like anyone in her class -- save for Lukah -- but now she was going to probably be near the front, and not by the window in the back of the class. Knowing fate, she would probably have to sit next to Lukah as well.

Michael loved being right. It was just right now, she didn’t want to be right, so as soon as the bell rang and the teacher began with placing Michael in the same seat she was in already -- the back seat, by the window. She relaxed for a little before realizing the same blond she had as a lab partner a few weeks back sat right in front of her.

Yeah, she knew fate had hated her from the beginning, but she never knew it hated her _this_ much. And she wasn’t really angry about it because she hated Lukah, because she didn’t anymore, _clearly_ \-- it was just now that she felt like she had to do everything perfectly because Lukah was perfect.

That was really one of the reasons why Michael had hated her.

Michael put her blond hair up in a bun, leaving her fringe out of it, and she blew a little piece of hair out of her face as she watched Lukah, looking at how the girl had her hair braided off to the side and it showed off her ears and Michael found it to be really cute.

Lukah had no piercings -- not even in her ears -- but she still had little clip on earrings that looked like real, oversized diamonds, and that made Michael feel a little bit happier. For what reason, she didn’t know (maybe because she knew the diamonds weren’t real?) but it did and she tapped her pencil on her desk. She almost wanted to put her feet up on the desk, maybe to show off her boots, but she didn’t want to hit Lukah with her feet. Normally, there wasn’t anyone sitting there and the Chemistry teacher didn’t mind, and so she would always do it -- except for when she was in jeans -- and so she played with her sleeves of her sweater instead.

Lukah had this long dress on and flip flops and her bangs pushed back out of her face and she essentially looked like the personification of spring and Michael just wanted to tap her shoulder and tell her she looked _fuckin’ cute_ , since her and Lukah looked like they were in complete different seasons (winter is the time to wear the best and comfiest sweaters, but that never really stopped Michael from doing it during the ending days of summer).

A light tap on the shoulder was enough to gain the attention of the blue-eyed girl and she turned back, a smile on her face. She was small -- but maybe that was just because Michael was taller than every other girl it felt like -- but she could’ve lit up a room if she so chose to. “Yeah?” Lukah asked, completely attentive to her even though she already had her chemistry stuff out on her desk and looked like she was ready for class.

“You look cute today.” Michael mumbled out, “n-not that you don’t look cute every other day, but… You’re pretty.”

“Thanks,” she blushed and turned back to face the board. Michael mentally smacked herself. “Also,” Lukah turned back to face her, “you’re pretty too.”

Lukah seemed a little embarrassed saying that, but she made sure she made Michael happy before feeling content with herself and looking back at the board, ready to start class.

And damn, Michael was definitely happy. Cal will so have to hear about this one.

**.x.**


	2. i want to hear about underneath the waves [cashton]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Calum thought it was just going to be a simple day -- nothing to worry about. Until, well, he popped his head up into his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry guys i just really love fishbutt aus sorry not sorry. hahahhaha but i don't think there's any cashton mermaid aus?? and im really sad that there isnt?? so i just kinda made this haha. cashton af.

Yesterday had been complete shit for Calum. He had been benched during the football game and he had failed a maths test, but that was okay because it was Friday, and he didn’t have to worry about those things until Monday again. So, he decided that even though it was getting late, it was still bright outside and that meant that he was just going to go to the beach and take a walk. Maybe he wouldn’t go home for the night. He didn’t know.

It was just the beach sounded like such a good idea and there wasn’t any way that he was going to be stopped. He didn’t even need his mum to drive him, they lived close enough to the beach.

He headed down the stairs -- grabbing his phone and shoving it in his pocket -- determined to make it out before his mum caught him. It wasn’t that late out, and he could definitely say that he was going to hang out with Michael, his best friend, but that was only if she caught him.

The walk to the beach was a little frustrating, a lot longer than he thought it was, and he was tired by the time he had actually reached the sandy shore. But, as soon as he felt the warm sand under his feet and heard the crashing waves in front of him, everything seemed to feel better. There was a small dock close by, and Calum contemplated actually going for a walk or just sitting there above the waves.

(He eventually decided on just sitting and relaxing on the dock). He walked over, ignoring the sea gulls that chirped as he walked past them.

Rolling his pants up to his knees and plopping his feet down in the water, he immediately let go of a big breath and relaxed, resting back on his hands. He looked up at the sun, which was almost starting to set, which would explain why he noticed that there weren’t a lot of people on the beach -- they were probably getting ready to go home.

So it was a little weird whenever he heard a giggle beside him, and he looked down at his feet -- that was where he had heard it, after all -- and saw nothing but a few bubbles appearing on the surface.

Feeling a bit weird, he called out, “hello?”

There wasn’t any answer back, why wouldn’t there be? But that didn’t stop him from relaxing, and soon he had his elbows on his thighs and he was looking around at the water. The sun was finally setting, there weren’t any other people around and for once, Calum felt on top of the world.

It wasn’t like one of those on-top-of-the-world feelings he got from getting the winning goal in football, and it wasn’t like one of those feelings where he was so in love with a person he felt like he could do anything. The feeling he had floating around in his skin was an on top of the world with peace feeling, if anything. He felt as calm as the waves, that had eventually died down and were creating little tiny waves instead. The seagulls had started to fly off, started to find their homes and that wasn’t a problem for Calum at all.

He was at absolute peace.

Well, he was, until he heard one little giggle, really, the same giggle he had heard before; though this time it was just off to the right side of him. Trying again, he mumbled out, “hello?” and he must’ve sworn he heard something splash underneath the waves.

 _Weird_.

“Hello?” he tried louder, and he was sure he looked crazy to the two people who were over behind him -- but they were in the process of leaving and so he didn’t really care about what they thought. “Is anyone there?”

There it was. Another giggle. He just couldn’t see who was making the sound. The sun was setting -- close to finished and so it was getting dark, and so if there was a maniac hiding underneath the water, he was screwed. Though, the laugh sounded cute and inviting -- _but that’s just what a murderer wants you to think_ , Calum thought with a shaky sigh.

“Are you really there?” Calum tried once more as the sky started to get darker, the sun was set and the moon was peeping up the sky, quick to claim where the sun was. That, he was prepared for.

What he _wasn’t_ prepared for was the tiny reply that came from nowhere. “Yes, I am.” The voice, bubbly and excited, sounded like it came from back behind him, beside the dock. As Calum lifted his feet up to turn and check, he heard the giggle and a few splashes. He shook his head, resting on his stomach and looking into the water where he had heard the response.

“Can you show me you’re really there?” This was crazy. He was having a conversation with the water, it seemed like. There was another giggle, and he strained to see in the water (because really, he couldn’t see anything since it was officially dark now, with the moon shining high and he could barely see anything). Off to his right he heard more giggles, and personally, he was getting a little frustrated.

As he turned to look, though, there was a boy there in the water, his arm resting on the edge of the dock. “ _Boo_ ,” the boy said with a smirk and Calum jumped, scrambling to his feet as he stared at him in shock. “What? Did you not expect me to be here?”

“I just… I just, how long have you been underneath the water?” The boy disregarded his question and moved closer to Calum, grabbing ahold of his ankle (which, caused Calum to shriek, not that he would ever admit it though). “C-Can -- can you please let go of my ankle, please?”

The boy in the water smiled and said, “as long as you don’t leave, I will,” and Calum really wasn’t sure what that meant, but he agreed and the boy in the water did what he was told. Calum took a seat on the dock instead and the boy gave a sly smirk and sank down underneath the tiny waves.

“Hey! I thought you said I couldn’t leave! So why can you?” Calum grumbled, leaning over the edge of the dock to stare at the bubbles. This definitely didn’t improve his mood, really.

The bubbles stopped and the boy reappeared, smiling up at the Kiwi boy. “Aww, do you want company? What are you doing out here anyway?” he asked and Calum blinked. Was the boy in the water even real? Or was Calum just getting fucked up in the head from lack of sleep?

“I needed to come here to clear my head…” Calum answered, gaining a small hum from the other boy as he rested his elbows on the wood of the dock, getting even closer to the Kiwi boy. It wasn’t like Calum was _uncomfortable_ , per se, it was just a bit weird how now he could smell how the boy smelled of sea salt (and it was a tad bit weird how he found it to be _nice_ ).

“Yeah, me too.” The boy’s eyes twinkled and Calum was a tad bit jealous, since his dark brown eyes never twinkled like that. “Sometimes you just need to hang out in new places, that’s all. I’m Ashton, by the way.”

 _Ashton_.

“Calum,” Calum answered and the boy giggled. “So, um. Why are you swimming?” Ashton stared at the boy, blinking a bit before arching an eyebrow.

“What? What else am I supposed to do?” Ashton asked and Calum shook his head as the other boy remained quiet, suddenly getting wide-eyed. “Oh. You think I’m like you. Haha, that’s funny.”

What the hell was that supposed to mean? Calum wanted to ask but Ashton got a sly smirk on his face, one that worried him. The boy in the water pushed up further, keeping his body straight and balanced as he rested on his hands, keeping himself upwards. He was even closer to Calum, which was a little worrisome, but Calum tried to brush it off.

“Grab my waist.”

Wait, what? Why did he have to grab his waist? Even though Ashton was attractive, he wasn’t going to grab his waist. Sorry, strange boy out of water. “I’m not grabbing your waist, Ashton, nice try,” Calum muttered under his breath, and Ashton rolled his eyes.

“Fine, I guess I’ll just show you, okay?” Ashton smiled, his dimples showing and _damn_ , Calum flushed a little. Whenever Ashton grabbed onto Calum’s wrists and tugged on them, letting them both fall into the water, Calum was not blushing. _At all_. In fact, that possibly ruined whatever moment they were having.

“Why the _hell_ did you do that?” Calum yelled as soon as they resurfaced and Ashton flinched, shaking his head.

“Just calm down, Calum, I will make sure this makes sense, okay?” Ashton said as he lifted himself up out of the water, taking a seat where the Kiwi boy was previously sitting. And where his legs should’ve been, there was --

“A-A _tail_?” Calum asked, growing pale in the face and Ashton flicked his fin upwards, exposing it out of the water, and it was dangerously close to touching Calum’s face. The gold and green scales were shining in the moonlight, matching the sparkle in Ashton’s eyes as he smiled down at Calum.

“That’s why I said it was funny when you said you thought I was human,” he explained, “you can get out of the water, you know… Just… Please, don’t go.”

What on earth was Calum supposed to say to that? He just met someone with a _tail_ , and he was just acting like it was normal? Well, of course he would, but it just _wasn’t_ but he couldn’t tell Ashton that. But something told him that he’d have to get used to it, because something in Ashton’s eyes told Calum that this wouldn’t be the last of him.

“Come sit up here with me again and talk to me? Please?” It was more of a question than a sentence and Calum felt a little bad. He climbed back up on the dock immediately, but he kept staring at the tail that was in front of him. “Sometimes clearing up your head with another person isn’t as bad, if you’re both doing the same thing.”

Calum smiled a little, feeling the boy relax around him and that made _him_ relax. “Yeah, I guess so,” he mumbled, and he saw Ashton smile, his straight blond hair plastered to his face, and he figured everything would be okay.

“I want to hear more about you, though.” Ashton scooted a little closer to him, and immediately Calum's breath hitched in his throat.

“My whole night is free." he managed to get out. "I want to hear about underneath the waves, though.”

Ashton giggled. “I’d be surprised if you didn’t.”

**.x.**


	3. that's tmi, mikey [muke]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke wouldn't have to find out, Calum would never tell him - he just prayed to the gods above, if there were any, that Liz never, ever found out because that would be embarrassing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haaahahaha guess who just needed some fetus muke being AWKWARD AS HELL? haha ill give you the answer it was me evil cackling

Michael doesn’t even remember why he did it. It was just a rough day practicing and everyone seemed to be bustling around and he had gone through a lot of shit, but that didn’t mean that he _couldn’t_ do it. So, whenever he got to the hotel with the rest of the bandmates, he quickly stripped himself down and climbed into the shower, and it just sort of… _happened_ , and he just couldn't get Luke out of his head.

Was that weird?

He didn't think so, the boy was his best friend after all. After washing his hair and his body, he couldn’t just stop thinking about the smaller blond and he let out a small little moan. Was _that_ weird?

He figured, no, it wasn’t, and so he continued.

When he finished with his long shower and walked out of the bathroom, dressed in a slouchy tshirt and his boxers, he didn't find it to be weird to sleepily text Calum: _**i just masturbated to lukey after a long hot shower and now im ready for sleep**_.

But when he woke up the next day in Luke’s bed, his fringe all jacked up and his shirt exposing his collarbone, he didn’t want to recall what happened. He figured that he just couldn’t sleep or rather, he just wanted to sleep next to him, but either way there was the short little boy next to him, and it made Michael feel a little awkward.

Did Michael feel bad for masturbating to him in the shower, though? Not really, and it wasn't like there was a chance that Luke would ever know, so what was he freaking out about?

It would never be a problem. He wouldn't have to find out, Calum would never tell him - he just prayed to the gods above, if there were any, that Liz never, ever found out because that would be _embarrassing_.

He grabbed his phone and unlocked it, reading the message from Cal: **_omg dude tmi! jk have a nice sleep_**.

Michael laughed a little and rolled his eyes, because how dare Calum say that was too much information - even jokingly? Technically it was, but Michael's seen Calum's dick before and well... _that_ was tmi, to say in the least. Michael typed out a quick, witty response ( ** _stfu noob u tell me u masturbate all the time to ash and *I* dont say its tmi_** ) and set his phone down on the bed. He sighed and stared at the ceiling, noticing how Luke curled up next to him and he turned, curling up next to him anyway -- which caused the smaller blond to crack open his eyes. Luke glanced at him, watching him with bright blue eyes and Michael had to duck his head because those were the same eyes that were in Michael’s visions last night.

“You’re cute,” Luke laughed and Michael smacked his shoulder. “Ow! What was that for?”

“I’m not cute, you’re the cuter one,” he argued and Luke rolled his eyes, nuzzling into the other boy’s neck. _Incredible. Even whenever he calls me the cute one, he’s still cuter_ , Michael thought sheepishly, grumbling a bit to himself.

Calum walked into the room, mumbling something about how he doesn’t masturbate to Ashton and Luke’s eyes went wide, and Michael had to bite his lip to refrain from laughing. “Dude, yes you do. Quit lying to yourself, you totally do.” the tallest blond muttered and Calum looked at him, crossing his arms.

“Well now, ever since you texted that, Ashton’s been avoiding me.”

“What’d he do, read the text?” Michael asked, sitting up, despite the complaints he heard from Luke. Calum shook his head. “So he didn’t read it?” A nod. “Then don’t worry about it, you’re overthinking it.”

“But still--”

“Pretty sure Ashton doesn’t have psychic mind powers,” Luke chirped, chipping into the conversation and Michael snickered a bit, glad that the two were thinking the same thing. Maybe _they_ had psychic mind powers? That would be pretty cool. “Let’s just go down there and talk to him, and maybe see if something is wrong?”

“I like that idea,” Calum and Michael said at the same time, only Calum sounded like he wanted to curl up in his blankets and hide rather than go to the lobby and talk to Ashton.

“Come on,” Michael mumbled and got up out of bed, grabbing Calum by the shoulders. Luke took a moment, but Michael was already at the lobby with the Kiwi boy. Luke stood behind Michael, who had his back turned to him anyway, and continued typing on Michael’s phone. “Ashton, please explain why Cal’s comin’ in Luke’s room at -- what time is it?”

Luke answered, “nine AM,” as he continued to stare down at a phone in his hand.

“Thank you,” Michael said without turning around, “nine AM, asking about why you’re avoiding him?”

“I’m not avoiding him, I woke up really early.” Ashton answered back and Calum rolled his eyes. “What? I fell off of the bed and I just decided I couldn’t go back to sleep so I’m here, eating breakfast.”

“Okay then…” Calum mumbled and shrugged his shoulders. “Want to get breakfast, Mikey? Luke?” he asked and both boys agreed, though Luke wouldn’t take his eyes off of the phone. Michael didn’t notice and even if he did, he didn’t care, he was just on his phone and it wasn’t like that was a big issue. Where was his phone, though? He probably left it upstairs in the hotel room.

After getting some breakfast and sitting back down at the table Ashton was at, Michael started to eat right away because he was hungry. There were a few conversations between Ashton and Calum, but that didn’t really bother him.

As soon as he heard Luke make a little squeaking sound and he covered up his mouth, his cheeks flashing a bright red, Michael looked over and saw that he was able to see his phone case covering the back of the phone. “D-Do you have my phone?”

Luke set down his fork and refused to look up at Michael, and Michael’s eyes widened whenever he realized that Luke probably got curious -- and _fuck_ , that meant he read what he told Calum last night. That was probably why his cheeks were redder than the strawberries on Ashton’s breakfast.

“L-Luke--” Michael tried, but then settled for, “ _why_ the _fuck_ were you reading my messages?”

“I-I just got curious!” Luke rambled on about how he didn’t mean to, and he just wanted to see what those two were talking about, just to maybe see when Michael texted Calum that Cal _sooo_ jacks off to the eldest member of the band, but he didn’t stop reading and continued to scroll up, and _oh my god_ , he did not mean to see that. “But why did you send him that? That’s TMI, Mikey!”

“Shut _up_! Give me back my phone now, oh my god!” he snatched the phone away from the blond, who ducked his head and rested it on the table. Michael held it tightly to his chest, his own cheeks burning red against his pale skin.

“I-I don’t get it, what did it say?” Ashton mumbled and Calum shook his head, disregarding the confused drummer.

 _Ugh_. Michael was definitely going to have a talk with him later, one of the reasons being that he completely made breakfast awkward for everyone else. He really shouldn't have sent that to Calum, but then again, Luke shouldn't have read it. _Eh._ _Whatever_. “I-It said nothing, just, oh my god, Luke, just promise to never do that again!”

“I promise!”

**.x.**


	4. looked like a scene out of a movie [cashton]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “It looked like a scene out of a movie, really.” Luke chirped, turning back to look at the Kiwi boy with a smile.  
> “I’m gonna chuck my skateboard at you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GUESS WHO WANTS A SKATER AU THATS RIGHT ME GIVE ME SKATER MIKEY AND CAL. pls. awww and nerdy ashton and luke tho im so happy (even though ashton didnt know that turtles lay eggs but whatev maybe science isnt his strong suit lololol) ahh maybe hes just one of those nerdy kids who read a lot and like learning things bc frick. also sorry aha this was a hard place to end it at. i wonder if i could make a fic out of this tho omg

When Calum crashed into a boy walking up the steps to their school, he felt a little bad.

It wasn’t like he didn’t expect it to go right, either. Neither did Luke. But Luke’s boyfriend, Michael, had dared him to skid down the handrails (which, really wasn’t a good idea, but Calum was saying he had mastered the trick) of the school’s staircase. The pole was thick enough anyway, and so it really shouldn’t have been tricky to do, but sometimes there were still people -- mainly teachers -- that would still be at the school and he did not want _another_ detention.

But, nonetheless, he did what Michael told him to do and started off at the school entry doorway, and flipped the redhead off as he rolled past. He jumped, landing on the poles and _dude_ , he was actually doing it!

As soon as he saw someone coming up the stairs, though, at a higher speed than Calum was expecting, he completely freaked out. He was luckily able to get off of the railing quicker than he thought he was able to - and without losing his balance, but he wasn’t able to turn the skateboard and avoid the guy, and he crashed into the person sprinting up the steps. He thought he ran into some teacher and he already knew he was going to get caught for having the board, but he didn’t want to end up hitting a teacher in the face and get in _more_ trouble.

Calum and the boy collided, sending both of them falling on the grass near the steps. In Calum’s defense, though, he was trying to slide down the handrails of the stairs and didn’t see the boy in time -- and that was definitely what he was going to say if this crappy teacher tried to give him a detention. There weren’t that many people out here anyway, since it was a little late and the buses left by the time Calum and his friends were actually able to skate.

The boy groaned as he lifted his head up to look at the boy he had crashed into, only to find that they had some how scrambled close to each other, and _damn_ , they were really close to each other, closer than Calum thought they were.

They had landed in the grass, but that didn’t mean that it didn’t hurt any less, and the boy Calum had ran into rubbed the back of his head. “You alright?” Calum asked, now discovering that, _no_ , it wasn’t a teacher and it was a _student_ instead -- and he’d probably get in even more trouble if this kid _wasn’t_ alright.

Back behind them, Calum could hear Michael and Luke coming toward them, asking if they were okay -- but they had stopped after seeing how close the two strangers were. (Calum totally heard Michael say, “ _ooh_ , love on the staircase” and he didn’t even have to turn around to hear that Luke smacked the back of his boyfriend’s head.)

“Y-Yeah, I’m okay.” the boy stumbled, his eyes twinkling behind huge glasses and his mouth curved up in a small smile and _fuck_ , he was cute. “Just… Maybe be careful next time, yeah?”

Calum shrugged, not really saying anything else as he stood. He held out his hand for the curly-blond boy to take, which he surprisingly did and they both, together, finally realized that the boy’s backpack spilled open. Out on the grass and on the cement were books and folders, pens and papers and pencils, and everything was littered everywhere. “That’s a lot of stuff… Why do you have all that?”

There was an awkward silence as he looked around at his feet. “Is there something wrong with that?”

There was a look of confusion on Calum's face, but that didn't stop him from muttering out, “It’s just… why? It’s so unnecessary, you nerd--”

“ _Just_ \-- forget it, whatever.” the boy said and Calum cringed, because he really didn’t mean to call him that. It just slipped. He normally called Luke that, and so he was a little used to that kind of situation -- because Luke would carry around a shit ton of books that were a little unnecessary. “Go join your friends, okay? Just leave me alone.”

 _Wow. That was kinda rude_. But, Calum did what he said and grabbed his skateboard, grumbling a tch over his shoulder at the other boy. “Whatever, I just was gonna help, alright?” he rolled his eyes and looked at his friends, a scowl on his face whenever the kid didn’t reply (to his face, at least).

He definitely didn’t feel bad anymore -- plus, the kid was _fine_.

“Come on Mikey, Luke, let’s leave this kid alone, like he wants.” Calum grumbled, looking back at the boy who, now that Calum thought about it, had pretty hazelish brown eyes. But, of course, he mentally kicked himself for thinking that afterwards. That kid didn’t want anything to do with him, and Calum sure as hell didn’t have time for a rude-ass boy like him.

**.x.**

“So, whenever you two collided, were there sparks? Is he gonna be the new queen of your world?” Luke asked as they climbed in Michael’s old, beatdown Mustang, and Calum had to speak out loud to tell himself to breathe -- because if he didn’t, his skateboard would be shoved down Luke’s throat in a matter of seconds.

“What kind of fucked up romance novels are you reading late at night?” Calum mumbled, looking out the window. He was sitting in the back of the car, which really wasn’t the best idea, since beside him there was an open wrapper of a condom-- _okay, not cool_ \-- but he was just happy that the actual condom wasn't in there. _Okay, thank you for letting me know what you two do on Friday nights when you ditch me for playing video games by myself. Cool_. “We just crashed and his shit spilled everywhere,” he said, trying to avoid the thought of that _thing_ next to him, and how it was probably opened with Luke’s teeth, “that’s all.”

“Well, I mean…” Michael trailed off and Calum rolled his eyes.

“Not you too, your boyfriend’s got you all hacked up to some high-expectations romance piece of shit. I thought you were supposed to be the cool one with the skateboard tricks, not some young-author novelist wannabe.” Calum grumbled, resting his chin on his hand. Michael snickered a bit.

“No, no,” Michael shook his head. “Don’t worry, I’m still the cool one, while Lukey over here still has solid A pluses in whatever high ranking English class he’s in. We’re just saying that… You know, maybe you were dazed, but I was serious when I said love on the staircase.”

“It looked like a scene out of a movie, really.” Luke chirped, turning back to look at the Kiwi boy with a smile.

“I’m gonna chuck my skateboard at you.”

**.x.**

First hour was study hall. Calum never went to study hall, since Michael usually had a study hall too somewhere else, and so they would always hang out in the halls or hang out in the cafeteria instead. They would actually sometimes even leave the school and come back, but the one time they brought Luke with them, they got caught and Liz was furious -- so that ruined _that_ plan. Calum almost didn’t want to follow what Liz was saying and not take Luke along, but that made Michael upset and so they vowed not to leave so that Liz wouldn’t transfer Luke to a different school.

But for whatever reason, Michael wasn’t there today (and strangely, Luke wasn’t either) and so he had to ride the bus, meaning he would get there on time. Meaning he would have to go to boring old study hall and do nothing for fifty minutes. _Boring_.

The office did its normal routine with him whenever he walked into the building -- confiscating his skateboard until the end of the school day -- and the principal, Ms. Madison, tutted her teeth against her tongue, and stood there with a hand on her hip.

“Where are your other friends? Normally you’re walking in through the eastern entrance.” She asked, her dark red lips making her seem like the pristine witch she was. She was five feet and ten inches without her heels, but now that she was taller than Calum, it was a little intimidating. But it was a little strange, since Michael and her seem to get along pretty well -- well, since he spends the day in her office more than she likes to admit -- and she had been starting to be nice to two of them, Michael and Calum respectively.

Calum just thought it was because Michael started dating Luke -- and Ms. Madison _adored_ Luke.

“They’re gone -- sick, probably.” Calum answered, handing her the skateboard in his hands. “That means I’m not late, and I’m not tardy, either. So you don’t have to talk with my mum.” Ms. Madison snickered, shrugging a shoulder.

“I’ll think about it. From what I heard from one student, you were still using this”--she gestured to the skateboard in her hands-- “on school property.” Calum flinched, his hands balling up into fists. “I have him in the office, if you want to apologize?”

“Not really.”

“Too bad.” Ms. Madison grumbled, grabbing ahold of Calum’s backpack and held a death grip on it. “Come on, you know I do not tolerate violence of students,” _hmm, maybe you should follow your own advice_ , Calum thought sourly, “nor injuries here.”

Calum’s eyes widened. “Wait a minute! H-He wasn’t injured though! It was an accident, I swear! I won’t try sliding down the railing here ever again, yeah? How about that? Don’t make me talk to him, I don’t wanna. I won’t even try skateboarding here!”

“Well of course you won’t. But, that doesn’t mean you get out of saying sorry. You were rude to him and I--”

“Don’t tolerate that, I got it.” Calum mumbled under his breath. Ms. Madison rolled her eyes as she ushered Calum into her office. He almost wanted to spit out that he was rude back, but he was quickly shoved into a room smelling of vanilla and was plopped down onto a black and pink chair.

He ran a hand through his black hair, a thought of _I should re-bleach my bangs_ popping into his head, and Ms. Madison interrupted that thought quickly. “Calum,” she said and Calum looked at her, raising an eyebrow. “This is Ashton Irwin.” She gestured to the other chair in the room as she took a seat in her own, behind her mahogany desk. Calum turned and saw the boy with the curly hair and those cute-ass glasses, and _dammit_ , those eyes and dimples were beautiful. It was almost a little unfair.

“Ashton, this is Calum Hood.” Ms. Madison continued, and he mumbled out a small greeting. Calum didn’t say a word. He was a snitch, why on earth should he talk to him? He wasn’t even hurt, either, and yet, Ms. Madison was still making him go to her office. _Oh god, my mum is gonna kill me when I get home…_

“Ashton, you told me what the situation was yesterday, correct?” Ms. Madison arched an eyebrow, her dark red lips pursing after she asked the question. Ashton nodded. Calum rolled his eyes, since it seemed like the Ashton kid kept looking at him out of the corner of his eye. “After you picked up all your supplies, right?” Another nod. “And that’s where Calum called you a 'nerd'?” A third nod. “Alright, from what I’m understanding, Calum, you called him a ‘nerd’ for having multiple supplies at hand, during the after school hours.”

“...Yeah, that sums it up pretty much. I mean, that’s not the worst I could’ve called him, he just needed to calm down. I was gonna help him and clean up all of his sh-- _stuff_ , but then he just kinda flipped out on me, you know?” Calum defended, looking only at the principal, and she in return kept her icy blue eyes on him. “I was gonna help,” he added sheepishly.

“But you called me a nerd, why would I ever want you to help me after that?” Ashton spoke and Calum sighed a little, because just like yesterday, his voice was as amazing as ever.

“I didn’t intentionally mean for it to happen.” Calum mumbled.

“So, what do you say?” Ms. Madison said as the warning bell began to ring. “You have five minutes to get to class. I’ll write an excuse slip if I have to, but you better mean your apology, Calum.” She seemed to bite out Calum's name, and he flinched, but sighed and looked over at the blond boy.

“Sorry, Ashton, for running into you. And being rude to you.”

“It’s okay…”

“Now, get to class. Both of you.” Ms. Madison said abruptly and the two sat up, grabbing their belongings and they quickly exited the office. Before Ashton could walk off toward his class though, Calum grabbed onto his backpack.

“Why’d you snitch?” he asked and Ashton shrugged.

“What you said was really rude to me. I’m sorry, though,” he said and ducked his head a little, avoiding eye contact with the taller boy. “And the reason I have so much stuff is, well, because I like learning. Okay?” And like that, he was off, walking by himself toward his classes.

 _Dammit_ , Calum thought after a moment, watching Ashton get further and further away from him. _He’s kinda cute_.

He then paused himself, shaking his head. _No, that couldn’t be right, this was not like Luke’s favorite book_.

But, Ashton was interesting, in the least.

Maybe that was all he needed.

“Hey, Ashton, wait up!” Calum shouted, running off toward the direction of the curly-haired boy. “I wanna talk to you for a second! Maybe walk you to class?”

Ashton turned, a smile on his lips. "...Come on, then, we have five minutes to get to class."

Calum snickered. _Maybe it was like a scene in the movie._ he thought as he caught up to Ashton, and Ashton gave him the brightest smile possible. "Are you sure you're not hurt?"

"Are you sure _you're_ not hurt?"

"Nerd."

"Whatever."

Calum snickered. _Well played, Ashton_.

**.x.**


	5. deep in the meadow [muke]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke is ill and won’t let Michael leave unless he sings a little lullaby.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you know what i love? muke (and cashton but shhh) and the hunger games trilogy. im really excited for this because luke would totally be the bf to ask for lullabies when hes sick and mikey's like but you never sing any for me??  
> also! guys idk if i should post smut in upcoming one shots? i just dont know if anyone would be comfortable about that or anything :O so just let me know? maybe? :D

“Mikey…” Luke moaned and it was almost scaring Michael to see his boyfriend look like that. Normally he was all happy, chipper and as excited about anything, but whenever he was sick, the whole band felt like it were sick and Michael _hated_ it. Luke’s hair was flat (due to twisting and turning in his sleep), he had dark bags under his eyes and his eyes, his bright, blue eyes seemed like they were an emotionless void that drained the sparkle and color out of them. Dull, silver-blue eyes looked up at the redhead and it _killed_ Michael to even look at him. “I feel like I’m gonna die.”

“You nerd,” Michael said back quietly, sitting down at the edge of the bed so he was able to stare at his hands instead of the boy in the bed. “You’re not gonna die.”

“Yes I am,” Luke argued, coughing a bit -- and Michael wasn’t sure if that was to prove his point or if it were a real, genuine cough. Either way, it was a terrible sound and it didn’t help that Luke’s voice was already scratchy enough.

“No, you’re not, shut the fuck up.” Michael stated harshly, glancing at the younger teenager with a little bit of worry in his eyes, and he silently hoped that Luke wasn’t going to make fun of him for it. “Sorry, but just… You’re not gonna die. Okay?”

“Yeah, o-okay…” the blond said without any hesitation. “Sorry, it just really hurts…”

“Ashton’s getting medicine, okay? You’ll be fine in like, an hour or something.” Michael played with the sleeves of his sweater, looking back at his hands.

“Will you lay down next to me?” Luke asked as Michael’s phone vibrated, and the redhead checked his phone instead of answering.

**FROM: kangaroo**

**how is he? we got the medicine and like some cough medicine too and also we got him a humidifier just cause it was a penguin and it was cute and its winter time too anyway sorry traffic is horrible and cal didnt make anything better because cal was taking forever because APPARENTLY we needed some chocolate and wine. why**

Michael furrowed his eyebrows together before rolling his eyes and typing out a witty response ( ** _I swear that boy is like on his period or something that was such an odd combo of food. and nice. a penguin humidifier. nice. he’ll like that_** ) before locking his phone and placing it on his lap.

“So, will you?” Luke asked and Michael arched an eyebrow over at him, asking him to clarify what he meant. “Will you lay down next to me? Please, Mikey?”

 _I don’t want to get sick though_ , Michael thought with a pout as he shook his head. There was a groan from Luke. “Who knows what kinda virus you have, I don’t want to get sick.” Luke kicked his feet up and down like he was five again, and Michael had to stand in order not to be hit with his feet.

“But that’s not fair!--” His complaints were interrupted by a cough, and Michael sighed, rubbing his temples.

“Oh, off with you. Calm down, or else you’ll cough up a lung.”

(Michael was kind of amused to see Luke’s reaction to _that_ statement.)

“Will you sing me a lullaby, then? To make me feel better?” Luke muttered miserably as he tried to snuggle up to his covers, trying to hide his cheeks -- which, were probably red from even asking that question, let alone asking it to his _boyfriend_.

The question caught the redhead off guard and he stared down at his boyfriend, completely confused. He wanted him to sing a lullaby for him? What on earth was he supposed to sing? He could do one of their songs, but that wasn’t really punk rock and he wasn’t too sure if Luke would like that or not.

“I mean, I… I guess so?” Michael answered, just so the blond didn’t think that he completely hated him. What to sing though? He tapped his chin, sitting back down at the edge of the bed, and he quickly pulled out his phone. “Hang on.”

**TO: kangaroo**

**luke wants me to sing a lullaby to him to make him feel better wtf what do i do what do i sing**

He paused for a second before typing out another text.

**TO: kangaroo**

**and dont you dare say ring around the rosie bc that does NOT make anyone feel better EVER**

A few seconds went by before he felt his phone vibrate, only it was from Calum and that didn’t necessarily make Michael feel the best either.

**FROM: calumsucksdick**

**what about that one lullaby from that one book**

_Wow. Really, Calum?_ Michael thought, rolling his eyes.

**TO: calumsucksdick**

**wow really thank you i didnt think of that one yeah i completely love that one lullaby from that one book mmhmm yep thANKS CALUM**

He typed out the message, sending it before glancing over at Luke, who was just sitting there. “Hang on, don’t worry,” Michael repeated, turning his attention back to his phone. He was about to give up and just tell Luke that he didn’t know what to sing when he felt another vibrate, and he opened up the message.

**FROM: calumsucksdick**

**the lullaby from the first hunger games, the one that katniss sings to rue whenever shes dying because she like sings it to her sister whenever shes sick what about that one**

Another vibrate.

**FROM: calumsucksdick**

**sorry for the vagueness in the first one i thought u would catch my drift shut up**

_Yes, but how did that one lullaby go?_ It had been a while since he last saw the movie, and he read the book when it first came out, so he was about to just type in **_hunger games lullaby_** in Google.

But, before he could do that, another little message popped up from Calum and it just said **_deep in the meadow_** and everything came back to him, and he quickly typed it into Google, seeing the lyrics on the screen on his phone.

He remembered memorizing that song because it was his favorite song, he just never told anyone because why would anyone do that? But, that was alright, because he knew that it would come in handy, and he was right so why not use it right now?

“Okay,” Michael kept his phone on his lap, just in case he needed it, but he turned his body toward his boyfriend anyway. “You might know what this is from, but don’t laugh, okay?” He didn’t really know why Luke would laugh, but it was still a precaution to take. He didn’t want to start the lullaby and have it backfire on him.

“I’m not gonna laugh, Mikey,” Luke promised and yawned, his knuckles growing white from holding onto his sheets.

“Okay…” Michael glanced down at his phone, trying to think of how the melody went, but he just decided he was going to wing it. “ _Deep in the meadow, under the willow_ ,” he began and Luke shifted, trying to get comfortable under the covers. “ _A bed of grass, a soft green pillow…_ ”

There was a certain shine in Luke’s eyes that told Michael he began to realize what the lullaby was from, but it calmed the blond down and his shoulders didn’t seem so tense.

Michael got up, resting his palm against the boy’s cheek as he continued, “ _Lay down your head, and close your sleepy eyes… And when you awake, the sun will rise_.” He tried to keep it flowing with the original beat he had created, and he managed to follow along with it. When he had paused the lullaby, signalling that he was done and retreating his hand away, Luke whimpered and grabbed onto the redhead’s hand. “What?”

“Stay here with me…”

“You’re gonna be fine, Luke--”

“Please? Stay here and keep singing, please…” Luke pouted, actually _pouted_ , and Michael sighed. He nodded his head, and Luke got comfortable again. “Stay here til the end of the lullaby, I should be asleep by then…” he added sleepily and Michael rolled his eyes.

“How will you know what the end of the lullaby is?”

“Kiss my forehead then,” Luke smiled a bit to himself and Michael snickered, sitting down on his bed again. He was closer to Luke that time, just to prove that he won’t leave until the end of the song.

“You just want to be kissed, don’t you?” he asked, arching an eyebrow whenever the blond shook his head. “Whatever…”

It was silent for a few seconds, and Michael decided that was Luke letting him know that he could continue.

“ _Here it's safe, here it's warm, here the daisies guard you from harm…_ ” Michael swept his hand over Luke’s temples before returning it back to his cheek, where it had been previously. “ _Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true…_ ” he continued on, keeping his eyes on Luke while the blond did the same. “ _Here is the place where I love you_.”

“Here is the place where I love you, Mikey…” Luke repeated and Michael laughed a little, hearing his phone vibrate once more somewhere off at the edge of the bed. It was probably Ashton or Calum telling him that they were probably close to home, but at that point he could care less.

“ _Deep in the meadow, hidden far away. A cloak of leaves, a moonbeam ray_ ,” Michael sang, rubbing his thumb over the blond’s cheekbone and it made Luke smile.

Luke lazily began to curl up next to the redhead’s figure, hiding half his face into the pillow as he snuggled up in his covers. Michael could tell he was trying not to get to sleep, but that made him feel a little bad since he was keeping him up. Finally, the blond covered his face up and closed his eyes, and didn't say another word.

“ _Forget your woes and let your troubles lay, and when again it's morning, they'll wash away_ ,” he sang quietly, running his fingers through the blond’s hair. “ _Here it's safe, here it's warm… Here the daisies guard you from every harm. Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true_ ,” he continued on, sighing a bit to himself. He saw Luke’s ribs moving up and down swiftly at a slow pace, meaning the boy was asleep. He paused his movements for a moment and kept quiet for a few minutes.

Even until he heard Luke begin to softly snore, he was quiet. He sighed and stood, beginning to grab his phone and head out of the room. He stopped, though, turning back to the sleeping boy and walked back over to him.

He quietly sang, “ _Here is the place where I love you_ ,” finishing up the last of the song and he kissed his boyfriend’s head. “I’ll make sure Ashton gives you your medicine when you wake up,” he paused for a moment before saying, “good night, Lukey,” even though the boy was asleep already.

**.x.**


	6. i think you’d do great [cashton]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ashton likes reading and hanging out in coffee shops -- Calum likes playing football and getting down and dirty. Sometimes Calum does little cute things with her hair, and sometimes… Well, sometimes, Ashton likes surprising Cal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> screams can i have fetus cashton genderbended pls pls thanks  
> i cant remember right now if ashton played soccer or not either so sorry if that's wrong?? i read a muke fanfic where cashton was on the same soccer team and so idk. but yeeees nerdy ashton pls pls

Ashton was definitely nervous. She didn’t know if Calum would be able to see her, or if it would even matter if she were here, but yet, she still insisted on coming along with Lukah, since Luke’s girlfriend was taking Calum to the game. Ashton hadn’t really met Calum enough to claim that they were friends, but Michael and Luke always seemed to know that Ashton had a tiny little crush on the football player for quite some time.

Luke was in the car with her, because Mikey was too busy driving Cal to the game and hell, they were probably there already, but Ashton’s hands were clenched around the steering wheel of her car. “You okay?” Luke asked from beside her and she shrugged. “Are you… Nervous?” There was a hint of laughter in her voice and Ashton almost wanted to _murder_ her.

“No! I’m not, I’m not nervous. It’s just… What if she doesn’t see me?” Ashton mumbled, pulling into the school’s parking lot.

“It’s a high school football game, Ashton. She’s bound to see you. Have you seriously not been here before?” Luke asked incredulously and Ashton parked the car, turning it off quickly. “Oh my god, have you never been to a football game?”

“I have, Luke! I’ve been to her games before! She just never sees me and I just… I just haven’t told her that I’ve seen her play. I mean, we’re not necessarily friends or anything, and she understands that I’m always busy, so why should it matter if she thinks that I’ve missed a few? I just… can never feel like I can tell her that I actually have been to them?” Ashton mumbled, looking at the blond haired girl -- who was currently rolling her eyes.

“That’s a little dumb.”

“Thanks,” Ashton deadpanned. “I’m a pretty shitty person, aren’t I?”

“No… Look, whatever. Come on, let’s go, okay? Mikey texted me that it’s almost starting to begin.” Luke muttered and got out of the car, only for Ashton to follow her along. “I’m sure we’ll be able to see your little crush and she’ll see you back-- I mean, we’re gonna be next to Mikey anyway, and Cal can recognize Mikey in a heartbeat.” Luke grumbled, obviously very touchy over the fact that Calum could do that, and she crossed her arms over her chest.

“I’m sure that didn’t help anyone.” Ashton summarized and Luke shook her head, paying for the tickets for the two of them, and they immediately made their way up into the stands. Luke spotted Michael, waving a bit and calling her over. Ashton pulled a book out of her bag and Luke arched an eyebrow over at her. “What?”

“You are _not_ reading during Calum’s football game.” Luke said and grabbed the book from the older blond’s hands. “Sorry, I can’t allow that.”

“If you throw that book, you whore, I swear to God--”

Luke took the book and sat on it, crossing her arms over her chest. “And I’m not a whore, thank you.” Ashton rolled her eyes, mumbling out that it was just the first word that came to mind. “I just didn’t want you reading during her game. You gotta get into it, do you read during her games that you go to?”

“Well, no, but I normally read when the game’s not starting -- like it is _now_.”

“You’re so nerdy.”

“Says the girl who’s in AP English.”

The two stared at each other before Michael came up the steps, almost tackling the smaller blond. “Hey!” She said, giggling a bit before looking over at Ashton. “You’re here, too! Cal will definitely be surprised.”And there it was. The burning in her cheeks. Every time that she heard that she would make Calum be surprised or happy made her get little butterflies in her stomach and she tried to duck her head, tried to hide her face behind her book that Luke was rudely sitting on.

“Haha, you’re just saying that…” she mumbled but Michael shook her head.

“I’m being serious.” Michael said, but she said it in a tone that said _I know Calum more than you do_ , and that didn’t necessarily make Ashton feel any better about the situation. “Oh, there's Cal!” She said, sitting down between the two blonds and Ashton sighed a bit to herself. They weren’t really that high up -- the bleachers barely went as high as the other sports bleachers did -- but instead of being at the top row like she normally was, they were near the beginning so Calum was sure to see her. Hopefully.

It wasn’t like Mikey wasn’t going to take her to go see Cal after the game anyway, instead of having her leave like she normally did. Luke and Michael would never see her leave, since she would make her exit at half-time, but actually sitting with the two implied that she _couldn’t_ leave this time. But honestly, Ashton wanted to see the girl play throughout the entirety of the game. It was the least she could do.

**.x.**

After the teams had to run past each other, saying “Good game” to each member, Ashton stood up with the other two girls -- who were completely excited to go greet their friend. Calum had scored the winning goal, making her team win in the last twenty seconds, and as Ashton grabbed her book that Luke had sat on throughout the entire game, Michael was already down in the field, practically jumping on the girl.

Luke and Ashton had managed to keep up with her, and soon they were down in the field by the blond haired girl who happened to be hanging onto the Kiwi girl. “Alright, alright, who’s dating who, here?” Luke asked and Michael got off of Calum, rolling her eyes.

“Are your eyes green, Luke? Oh my god, I think they’re turning green!” Michael cried, a smirk tugging at her lips.

“Haha,” Luke deadpanned. “Very funny.”

“Hey, you made it!” The voice shocked Ashton a little, since it was directed toward her and not toward the other two blond girls. It was Calum talking to her, and the butterflies in her stomach got worse. “Normally you only stay until half-time.”

“Y-You notice that I’m there?” Ashton asked and Calum nodded her head, looking at her like she was crazy.

“It’s not really that big of a high school, Ash. Of course I see you, you sit up at the bleachers and read until the game starts. Or at least that’s what _some_ girls tell me.” Calum said, glancing at the two blonds beside her. “But they see you. I see you.”

“You guys notice that I’m there too?” Ashton arched an eyebrow over at her friends. Luke shook her head. “Then it was you, Mikey.” Another smirk from the tallest blond girl and she looked at the girl smugly.

“What? I’m not gonna destroy whatever peace you have reading whatever book you’re reading, am I? So why would I tell you that I see you sitting there, reading some young adult novel?” Michael asked and grabbed onto Luke’s hand. “Anyway, we’re gonna be heading out for pizza; Cal, are you riding with me or...?”

“I just kinda wanna hang out here for a little bit with Ashton, if that’s okay?” Calum asked and Ashton paused, looking at her friends. “We’re just gonna kick around a ball, maybe, if Coach lets us?”

Michael smirked. “Sure, sure. Just make sure after you’re done to meet us at Tony’s, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, we will.” Calum said and ushered the two off. “We can go back into the school and kick around the ball in the gym if you want?” she asked, and honestly, what was Ashton supposed to say to that? Maybe Calum could teach her the rules of the game. That would be fun.

“Uh, sure,” Ashton agreed, shouldering her bag nervously. She wondered how late it was, but that thought quickly went out the window as Calum grabbed her hand and _fuck_ \-- it felt nice. A bolt of electricity went up her spine as they walked, walked past groups of people and her Coach -- who she politely asked a ball for -- and into the school. It was a little quiet, only bustling around with a few adults, and they eventually made it to the locker room.

“I’m not so sure you’ll be comfortable playing football in that,” Calum said and looked at Ashton’s purple sweater and leggings. At first, there was a momentary thought of _what’s wrong with my clothes?_ before Ashton decided that Calum was probably right, she’d probably die of heatstroke. “You could get your gym clothes or, something. Not sure if you’d want to wear my gym clothes though.”

“Can I wear your jersey?” Ashton asked after a moment of silence and she really wished she hadn’t. Calum’s cheeks burned a little, though the blond haired girl definitely felt like hers were burning more, but to her surprise, Calum nodded.

“Uh, yeah, it might be a little sweaty and covered in grass stains though,” she said and Ashton shook her head. “Alright, if you don’t mind that kinda stuff…” she trailed off as the two walked into the locker room, which had been unlocked due to girls changing in there for the game. But, Calum took Ashton by the hand and led her into the locker room, heading over to her locker. She quickly stripped of her jersey, handing it over to the blond girl hesitantly. “You sure you want to wear it?”

“Y-Yeah,” Ashton agreed and took the jersey, trying hard not to look at the girl who _just took off her shirt in front of her face_. Clearly, Calum knew what she was doing, but she turned around to unlock her locker, and Ashton quickly turned to go find her own, to put on some shorts and her gym shoes.

After Ashton got dressed, she turned to see Calum standing there, holding the soccer ball against her hip. “You ready?” she asked. “I would take your stuff though, ‘cause I don’t know how long the locker room is gonna stay open.” Ashton did what she was told, grabbing her bag and locking her locker, and she and Calum walked out of the locker room together. “So, do you know how to play football?”

“I have a vague sense of how to play,” Ashton admitted, looking over at the girl. “Like, you can’t use your hands or arms, and you try to make a goal on the opposing team’s side.” She then added a shrug afterwards and Calum laughed.

“I mean, you got the jist of it, so that’s good. I figured we could just play without keeping points, and just kinda kick around the ball? Maybe you could even help me train, and I can pretend to be goalie and let you be a forward too, just to make it even?” She smirked, opening up the gym doors and walking inside. Ashton followed her into the gym, mindlessly agreeing to everything she was saying. “Maybe you’d be a good centre-forward like me, or like, an outside forward.”

The blond blushed a little, setting down her stuff next to Calum’s, and she headed over toward where the black-haired girl was. Calum was currently taking her hair of her ponytail and she huffed a bit. “Do I have to put my hair up too?” Ashton asked, because she really didn’t want to. She spent an hour and a half straightening it, there wasn’t any way that she was going to put it up. Well, it would get messed up anyway, she didn’t really know why she was caring. “Do you have a hair tie?”

“Yeah, here.”

**.x.**

Thirty minutes later, _or was it an hour?_ Ashton lost track of time, she didn’t really care, but they were both out of breath and being a goalie against an actual football player was harder than she expected. Calum, however, still patted her back and smiled at her, and Ashton got butterflies in her stomach again.

“You did great! You should join the soccer team next semester. I think you’d do great.” Calum complimented and _fuck_ , it made Ashton’s cheeks burn.

And, really, she did something that surprised even her. “Yeah, I think that would be fun, I’ll have to join.” Calum gave her a smile and pulled her into a hug, even though they were both sweaty. “Though, I don’t think I’d be as good as you.”

“Practice,” Calum mumbled. “Anyway, let’s go join Mikey and Luke at Tony’s, I think they’re getting tired of waiting for us. I’ll pay, my treat, okay?”

Ashton nodded, walking over to her bag. “Do you think the locker room is open? Or should we just change in my car?” Wow. That came out a little dirtier than she thought it would, but Calum shrugged.

“We could try the locker room first,” she said and they nodded, walking off in silence. Before Ashton could open the door to the locker room, Calum tugged on her hand. “You know, you’re really cool.”

“You’re cooler,” Ashton responded, because how else was she supposed to respond to that? Calum laughed, crinkles by her eyes showing up and it just made her even more attractive. “I’m being serious.”

“Thanks, mate. We should hang out some time.”

“We should. Just not whenever we’re all sweaty.”

The two laughed, heading into the locker room which thankfully was unlocked still, and Ashton realized that Calum still had a hold of her hand until they parted to go to their lockers.

And, the butterflies returned. She just didn’t know whenever they would go away.

But, that was perfectly okay with her.

**.x.**


	7. his name's michael [muke]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “This is Luke Hemmings, are you busy for tonight?” There was a bit of a pause before Luke rambled off, “S-sorry, that sounded better in my head. I saw that you left up information for a babysitting job and I’m going out for a bit and I would like for you to babysit little Hero.” ✿ For Muke_Cashton_Love ✿

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> soooo i had read a little babysitter muke fic by Muke_Cashton_Love and so I decided to write her a little oneshot too for her!  
> so here you go throws babysitter mike at u  
> for Muke_Cashton_Love ✿  
> http://archiveofourown.org/users/Muke_Cashton_Love/pseuds/Muke_Cashton_Love go check her ao3 out bc YES shes pretty awesome :D

The first time that Michael was called up for a babysitting job, he completely ended up hating it. It wasn’t at all like how the guy said it would be -- there was crap all over the house and the five children were all crazy. Maybe he regretted leaving his contact number of a cheap phone he had bought all throughout the town.

So, he was a bit hesitant whenever there was a phone call on that stupid trackphone he bought, and he answered it with a, “Hello?”

“Hello? Is this Michael Clifford?” A guy’s voice, he sounded a bit young and that gave Michael at least a _little_ hope.

“Uh, yeah, it is.” Michael answered, sighing a bit to himself. He already had enough homework, and what if this was like last time? He didn’t want to be out past 1 AM watching after snotty kids who wouldn’t go the fuck to sleep.

Yeah, he definitely regretted leaving his contact number all over the town, now that he thought about it. Ugh. But, it was a thing his twenty year old ass did, and there wasn’t any way of stopping it.

“This is Luke Hemmings, are you busy for tonight?” There was a bit of a pause before Luke rambled off, “S-sorry, that sounded better in my head. I saw that you left up information for a babysitting job and I’m going out for a bit and I would like for you to babysit little Hero.” The man said, Luke, and Michael rolled his eyes. Who was this dude and why did he name his child Hero? Whatever, he shook his head and rubbed his temples. “I’ll pay you two-hundred for the whole night?”

 _Two hundred?_ Michael thought excitedly, agreeing immediately without thinking twice about it. “Yes, yes, sure! Thank you,” he said, “just text me your name and address, and I’ll be there whenever you want me to come over.” The man agreed to the statement and said his goodbyes, and Michael hung up the phone. Well, he got a babysitting job for tonight. That was all he really needed to worry about.

**.x.**

_Watching Paranormal Activity before going over at 7pm to babysit probably wasn’t the best idea_ , Michael thought as he drove himself over to the place Luke had texted him. _Now I’m gonna end up like that babysitter at the possessed house…_

He shook his head as he finally arrived at the Hemmings residence, and Michael could already tell that he would most likely rather be a babysitter at a possessed house than a babysitter at some spoiled rich kid’s house. But, nonetheless, he parked his car and got out, locking the door behind him. As he made his way up to the door, he could tell he was already gonna hate being here for practically the whole night.

Because when the parents are snotty, the kids are as well. Fuck this guy.

But, he couldn’t back out because he was already here and that didn’t really improve his mood. He knocked on the door, ringing the doorbell afterwards. A tall blond guy opened the door, a smile on his face and a lip-ring in the corner of his mouth, and damn, he was attractive. “Hi, are you Michael? I’m Luke Hemmings, we talked on the phone?”

Oh, he would _definitely_ fuck this guy.

“Uh, yeah, I’m Michael,” Michael said and almost cringed. _Smooth_. If he had known he was meeting a _fucking attractive_ guy, he would’ve put on more than a sweater and skinny jeans. Maybe he would’ve worn a shirt that said _fuck me_ , but that was a different topic. It would’ve been completely sarcastic anyway -- well, _maybe_. But whatever. “Where’s little Hero?”

 _Was that the right name?_ He was second-guessing himself, because the blond-haired boy looked at him with such bright blue eyes that he felt like he had said the name wrong, or had maybe said the wrong name. _Wouldn’t that be embarrassing…_

“Ah, he’s just in the movie room, watching Little Einsteins or whatever the show’s called. You know. Kid stuff.” Luke answered, letting the redheaded boy inside and Michael nodded even though he had no idea what the fuck that meant. “So, Hero isn’t really allergic to anything, and he likes cheese pizza. His bedtime’s normally around nine PM,” Luke listed off as he walked down the hall, and Michael followed him subserviently, glancing around at the light gray walls of the expensive house. He got to a door, opened it up and called down the stairs for Hero. “Is there anything else that I’m missing for Hero? Oh, he likes apple juice. But I guess he could’ve told you that. My mom normally would’ve been here to take care of him but she had died a few months back and I finally had been strong enough to go out for a while.”

Michael’s breath caught in his throat.

Hero excitedly climbed the steps, getting up to the top and he looked at Michael, giggling a bit before hiding sheepishly behind Luke, tugging on his pant leg. “Big brother, who’s he?”

_Wait, wait. Big brother? Oh my god… That meant that Hero and Luke had no mother…_

_But also, hell yeah, he hasn’t had a kid with anyone_ , Michael thought victoriously, but it was diminished by the thought of, _well, I don’t really know that for sure. Shut the fuck up, brain! This is sad, and shouldn’t be destroyed by the thought of how attractive Luke is!_

“This is your babysitter, Hero, his name’s Michael.” Luke answered, running his hand through the child’s hair. “Michael, meet my five-year-old brother, Hero.”

**.x.**

He definitely felt bad that he originally thought they were going to be snotty, but the truth was that neither Luke nor Hero were snotty. Thirty minutes after Luke leaving, saying that he had to go out with his friends and couldn’t be there to watch him -- that’s why he had Michael over in the first place -- Hero was getting along with Michael so well that the redheaded boy didn’t want to leave whenever the blond came back.

(That also might’ve been because he didn’t want _Luke_ to leave either, Mikey had him answering questions about the house and Hero until Luke was literally out the door, in his car).

“Mikey!” Hero called and giggled as he climbed onto the sofa, joining the redhead. “How did you get your hair that bright of a color?”

“Ha, I just dyed it, I colored it to be this red. I would do the same for you but I don’t think your big brother would like that.” Michael said, playing with the sleeves of his sweater. “Alright, ya ankle biter, what should we do? It’s seven-thirty. Are you hungry?”

“Juice box!” Hero shouted and tugged on the redhead’s wrist. “Juice boxes!” he repeated and Michael laughed, nodding his head.

“I’m not sure if you can have _only_ juice boxes, little one,” Michael muttered, pausing a bit at the nickname. _Fuck_ , that didn’t improve his mood, because the more that time carried on the more that Michael wanted a kid. Or at _least_ a little brother. “Maybe some pizza?” he asked, and Hero clapped his hands together rapidly.

“We have those biscuit thingies in the fridge!” Hero cried excitedly. “Can we do what big brother does and make pizza using those little biscuit thingies?” Michael didn’t exactly know what he meant by that but he didn’t want to let the boy down and so he nodded his head. “Yay! We put the sauce stuff on the doughy stuff and then we add the cheese!”

 _Oh, okay, so that’s how Luke makes pizza, he just uses biscuits and puts sauce on them_ , Michael thought, agreeing with what the little boy was saying.

“Then let’s make pizza, Hero.”

**.x.**

Whenever Hero fell asleep at 8:38 PM, thirty minutes before his bedtime, Michael wasn’t sure what to do for the rest of the night. He heard his phone -- the shitty one -- vibrate on the table and he got up to check it.

**FROM: Luke Hemmings**

**how is hero? is he doing alright? um, so theres gonna be some change of plans im coming home relatively soon… you’ll still get paid fully though so dont worry**

Michael arched an eyebrow.

**TO: Luke Hemmings**

**uhh yeah hes fine he just went to bed, whats wrong?**

He didn’t know why he had sent that back, but he was kind of glad he did. He wanted to make sure that Luke was alright, and that nothing had happened. Whenever Luke didn’t reply, but instead pulled into the driveway, Michael was a little on the verge of a freakout. As he was greeted at the door though, Michael accidentally spat out, “What the _fuck_ happened? Are you okay?”

It startled the taller blond and he stepped inside the house, Michael muttering out an apology. “Just, it wasn’t working and I decided to leave. I was just freaking out a little, you know. Well, yeah, I guess you _do_ know.” He gestured to the red-haired boy playing with his sleeves, and Michael glared daggers up at him. “I’m fine though, thanks for asking…”

“You’re welcome…” Michael said sheepishly, staring at the boy. “So, um--”

“Yes, you’re gonna get paid, don’t worry.” Luke said but Michael shook his head. “What? Do you not want it?”

“N-No, I do, I just... “ _Oh god, how can I say this without being weird?_ He took a deep breath and decided to spit it out anyway. “Uh, I don’t necessarily want to leave yet. I just want to get to know you better, really.”

There was a sparkle in Luke’s eyes whenever he smiled that let Michael know that was what he wanted as well.

They pretty much ended up talking the whole night, talking about random things, like how Luke likes penguins and Michael plays guitar. How Luke wanted kids and Michael would be totally okay with adopting (which of course led to the talk about who they liked and that just made Michael's night whenever Luke said a certain redhead).

At the end of the job, though, Michael left the house early at 5AM with money in his pocket, Luke's number on his actual, not shitty phone, and a promise of Luke calling him -- but not for the babysitter job.

Life was pretty good.

**.x.**


	8. i love you too, you know [cashton]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I love you,” Calum repeated, slurring his words together and Ashton couldn’t tell if that was from the impact or the alcohol. Suddenly, Ashton felt another impact from behind him, making him hit his head hard against the steering wheel -- and he could’ve sworn he heard more glass shatter as he blacked out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so i was talking to my brother about ideas for cashton oneshots and i was like "yeah you know i need an idea for a oneshot for cashton" and he just turned straight at me and said in the most horrified tone ever, "calum dies" and i juST  
> CRYING  
> so yeah theres gonna be a few triggers in here so pay attention to this pls i dont want anyone to get hurt okay sweeties  
> //car crash, //death, //mentions of cutting and self harm  
> i think that's all lovelies. sorry for getting really behind on this, this was so hard to write and its not even that long. :(( and i have to start school on tuesday bleeehhhhh. i'll maybe hopefully have a much, much happier muke AND cashton out soon, to make up for this :(

It was really Ashton’s fault to begin with.

He didn’t check to make sure the drunk teenager was buckled in properly.

He just placed the boy into his car and thought he was at least smart enough to buckle in his own goddamn self. As they started to drive off, though, Calum was talking and leaning over and whispering little sweet nothings in the curly-haired boy’s ear to take some pressure off of Ashton, who happened to be having a bad day.

He had relapsed earlier that night and Calum saw the new scars while they were flirting at the bar. They had been friends for a while but that night, _that night_ they were flirting (really hardcore flirting, really, there was a whole lot of touching and grinding on each other; Ashton was easily getting his mind off of the problem at hand) and Calum was so close to sticking his hand down Ashton’s pants until he saw the cuts that ran up and down his arms.

It was a little awkward between the two of them before Calum asked what had happened, and Ashton shook his head and they both started _crying_ , and with teary eyes Calum had demanded that he take him home so they could watch a movie and fall asleep together. It had sounded really nice and so how could Ashton resist? Calum even mentioned something of a little more, which had made the boy happier.

Ashton had to finally convince himself to drive them home, since he wasn’t even drunk and he was able to speak without slurring his words together, unlike Calum, who had asked to drive.

So, it was a little awkward as Ashton made his way out of the bar, tears dripping down his face and a drunk, sobbing mess clinging onto him. So, he shoved the boy into his car and got inside, sitting in the driver’s seat instead.

“Calum, sit down and buckle your seat belt,” Ashton ordered, even though his cheeks were red from the Kiwi boy mumbling out a little sweet nothing. Calum took his advice though and sat down, and Ashton stopped at a stoplight. He didn’t like how many drunk people were out, on the streets and maybe in their cars and that didn’t make the eldest boy feel any better about the night. “Do you think we should’ve gone the other way or something? I feel like this has a lot more drunkies everywhere.”

“A-Ashton, calm down,” Calum slurred, keeping his hand on Ashton’s thigh. The eldest stared up at the red light, wondering when it would be able to turn to green, so he could get home quicker and cuddle with Calum.

 _Hah. Cuddle with Calum. That was cute_ , he giggled at his own joke, making Calum smile like he had been the one that made him laugh. Well, technically, he did, but that was a different story.

(There was also another, _much_ dirtier thing that made him laugh, but he wasn’t about to go and say it).

As soon as the red light turned green, Ashton pressed the gas and began to drive through the intersection.

Well, not really.

Halfway through the intersection, there was a loud bang to the side of Ashton and he heard a loud thunk immediately afterwards, and he hazily looked over to see Calum’s forehead bleeding, the windows crashed open. Ashton’s head throbbed, his vision was dazed and he felt trickles of blood coming down his forehead.

He glanced over at Calum, who was also bleeding, a big gash on his forehead and Ashton let out a little whine, trying to reach out for him. “C-Cal--” he mumbled. Calum groaned, his eyes scrunching up and Ashton tried to unbuckle his seatbelt to get to him. “Ca-Calum,” he said, his mind fogging up with the thought of _what the hell just happened?_ and he wanted to get out, but there wasn’t any way he was leaving without Calum. That wasn’t an option. He was getting Calum. “Ca-Calum, c-can you hear me?”

“A-Ashton,” Calum mumbled quietly. “I love you.”

Ashton would’ve normally died of happiness, but the way that Calum said it made it seem like he was _sure_ he was going to die, and there wasn’t any goddamn way that was gonna happen. “C-Cal, quit it, you’re not dying on me.”

“I love you,” Calum repeated, slurring his words together and Ashton couldn’t tell if that was from the impact or the alcohol.

Suddenly, Ashton felt another impact from behind him, making him hit his head _hard_ against the steering wheel -- and he could’ve sworn he heard more glass shatter as he blacked out.

**.x.**

Waking up in a hospital should’ve been alright, especially when Ashton looked up and saw that his two friends Michael and Luke were staring down at him, but everything started to come back to the blond and it didn't make it fun. At all. Especially since his head throbbed and every muscle in his body seemed to be on fire. His throat was raw, but he still somehow managed to mutter out, “How long was I out?”

“Eh… About two days.”

“Wow.” Ashton mumbled and he looked around the room, searching for that same boy who told him he loved him.

“Yeah,” Michael sniffled, “it’s pretty insane, but the doctors said you’re going to be fine--”

“C-Calum?” He asked and Michael grew pale, glancing over at his boyfriend. “Wh-where is Calum?” It finally dawned on him that the two other boys looked like they had been crying -- they both had bags under their eyes and Michael was all fidgety, clinging onto his boyfriend who had looked like he had seen a ghost in the room. “Michael. Where is Calum? Luke, where is he?” Ashton sat up quickly, ignoring how dizzy he felt and the wires he was hooked up to. “Guys, _where is he_?”

“H-He’s, he’s…” Luke mumbled and shook his head. “I-I can’t tell you, Ashton, I…” The two blonds stared at each other, Ashton’s hands shaking as he clenched them up into fists. “He’s dead, A-Ashton.”

The room got eerily quiet and Ashton stared up at his two friends, slowly starting to shake his head. “N-No, he’s not, he’s not dead, st-stop it!” Ashton muttered and Luke sighed, trying to calm the other blond down. “He…”

“Smashed through the windshield, since he wasn’t wearing a seat belt.” Michael choked out, and Ashton felt the blood drain from his face. That was _his_ fault. Calum’s dead because he didn’t put on a seat belt. Because Ashton thought he could get it himself. “He’s dead, was dead on impact.”

“I-It was my fault,” Ashton mumbled to himself before repeating it louder. Michael arched an eyebrow, narrowing his eyes down at the eldest boy. “I didn’t make him put on his seat belt, I mean, I told him but he was drunk and I just--”

“Ashton, quit it! It’s not your fault!” Luke shouted, tears burning at the corner of his eyes and Ashton ducked his head, his eyes closed to fight back any tears. He was a little shocked by Luke’s outburst, but he felt like if he had actually pulled over, or had buckled him up in the first place that this wouldn’t be the case and Calum would still actually be--

“He’s _dead_.” Ashton muttered as if he couldn't believe it still, still in a state of shock. He could feel his heart rate increase with the mere thought of it. Calum was dead, and where was he? Still here. “We were going to watch movies with each other and throw popcorn at each other and then fall asleep at two in the morning,” he admitted sadly, his wrists burning, screaming for one more slash and he almost considered it, but he figured the doctors wouldn’t let him have a blade -- even if they didn’t know what he was asking it for. “But now he’s dead. And I’m here.”

The room was thrown back into silence again, but Michael kept sniffling and hiding his head in Luke’s shoulder and it made Ashton feel even worse. The eldest just stared down at his hands, not really having the courage to say anything else. “And you _better_ stay here for a long, long time, Ashton,” came the sharp response from the redhead and Ashton didn’t dare to look up at him. “Otherwise I will bring you back from the dead and keep you handcuffed to me at all times. Even whenever I'm taking a shower." Michael said and Luke rolled his eyes, and Ashton didn't really find it funny, but he still let out a half-hearted laugh. The room went back to being quiet again, and it was a little uncomfortable.

“C-Can I just have some time by myself?” Ashton asked and Michael looked at his boyfriend before mumbling out a small agreement, and the two walked out of the room.

He looked around the room, looking out at a small bird perched up on a telephone wire. It chirped a little, and even though Ashton couldn’t hear it, it seemed like it was happily singing. It made him feel worse, because his crush, his whatever he was, his _best friend_ wasn’t there to enjoy it and probably wouldn't ever.

Well, there wasn't a 'probably'. Ever.

Calum was never coming back.

“H-Hey, Calum, I’m--I’m sorry,” he said after a minute of silence and he focused on one corner of the room, as if the boy was actually sitting in the seat placed there. “I just hope you’re okay, wherever you are. It just sucks ‘cause I’m not with you, you know… Uh… I don’t know when the doctors are gonna come in, if they’re even coming in, but I… I love you too, you know.”

 _Just wait a little while, okay? I’ll be there soon_. _Miss you_.

**.x.**


	9. playing best friends [muke]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As soon as an idea popped into the blond’s head, he decided to go for it. He stood up, his hands shaking, and he held onto his drink and phone tightly as he made his way over to the redhead who was getting pestered mercilessly.
> 
> or
> 
> ‘im pretending to be ur bff bc u looked very uncomfortable with that person at the bar hitting on you!AU’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you do not know how long this has been an idea in my head and now i have finally done it. i have made a one shot for this im pretending to be ur bff au and i have made it muke. excellence.  
> i just worked this one out in case anyone was still hurt over the last cashton one shot (i know i am) so here u go lovelies FRIENDSHIP MUKE

Luke knew something was going to happen to him the moment he stepped into that bar. The whole atmosphere was the same, of course, loud music pumping throughout the walls as he made his way past crowds of people. He was just going in for a simple drink, maybe a small hook up and nothing too major. He had just gotten out of a relationship, and he was still on the level of currently hating himself, but doing alright enough to go somewhere.

His friends, however, were being brats and wouldn’t want to hang out, and so there he was. By himself. At a bar.

With a whole bunch of people around, jumping to the music and chatting and sitting at the bar ordering drink after drink after drink, Luke almost didn’t know where to go first, since Ashton would normally be talking to someone else and Calum would be off, drinking away the fact that he didn’t ask Ashton out yet. But, the two were off doing something else, something that involved the two of them only (Luke wondered if they were fucking already, it would be about time, too).

Actually, _no_ , scratch that, he hoped they weren’t because then they would never stop it and he’d be the third wheel again. Well, that was where it got complicated. He just wished Calum would ask out Ashton already instead of coming home after banging some chick and staying up until three in the morning complaining to Luke about how he just wanted Ashton in the first place.

Luke usually responded with telling the Kiwi boy to just fuck him already and seal the deal.

The blond shook his head. He hoped he didn’t think too much about the two boys’ relationship problem for the whole night, because that would suck really badly. He already had his own -- they were nonexistent, but they were still problems -- and that was alright, but he would at least like to meet someone there.

Why had he gone to a bar again? The question seemed to bounce around more in his brain as minutes went on, and he awkwardly shuffled over to the bar, sitting down on a stool.

But he had just known that something was going to happen to him tonight, and so he had to be here, even if he wasn’t quite sure if it was a good thing or a _not so good_ thing. What was the harm in trying, though? At least fifty years from now he could laugh about it until his lungs give out.

He winced. Okay, not really the best image to see in his mind. The bartender came by, asking the blond what he wanted to drink and he replied back simply with, “a Coke” only to get an arched eyebrow from the girl. “Alright, alright, fine. Just surprise me?” Luke tried, and the girl tapped her chin before walking off, heading back to where she was previously. Luke wondered what she would do, if she would even do anything. Maybe she would just get him a Coke. _Wouldn’t that be something..._

He decided to play on his phone for the time being, hearing more people talk behind him, next to him, and they were all ignoring him. Of course. Maybe coming to a bar wasn’t the best idea. Maybe he should’ve gone to the bookstore, or that bookstore Ashton worked at. He would’ve been bound to meet anyone there, anyone willing for a relationship.

He paused. Wait, was that what he was looking for? What happened to just a small hookup? He shook his head again. _Calum’s got me thinking all weirdly now… Him and his ‘relationship’ problems with Ash..._ He sighed, looking up when the bartender brought him out a Coke, even said it was a Coke and that made Luke’s cheeks burn. “Thank you,” he mumbled, taking the straw and using it, keeping him nearby. Maybe a Coke was the way to go. He needed to be able to drive back home, or maybe Calum would be able to pick him up.

_Who knows?_

There was a quiet, “can you go away, please?” that occurred nearby the blond, and he snapped his head up to make sure the person wasn’t talking to him. When he spotted a redheaded boy, drink in his hand and his phone in the other, sitting two seats down from him, he knew that something was up with the situation. He had remembered seeing him a few minutes before, sitting there and looking at his phone like Luke was, but there was someone else next to him -- and he assumed that was who that boy was telling to go away. There was a much older guy beside him, obviously a _little_ too drunk and a _little_ too close for comfort and Luke could tell that the redheaded boy did not like being hit on by that guy. At all.

Luke shook his head, turning back toward his phone. There wasn’t any way that he could help him, was there? Plus, maybe the guy would go away on his own and leave the poor red-haired kid alone.

Luke just didn’t expect to hear the redheaded boy shout out a little louder, “Please, go away, leave me alone, I’m being serious.”

It startled him and he knew that he had to do something about it, even if he didn’t know the boy. He just wanted the older guy to leave him the fuck alone, and did he really have to know the redhead in order for that to happen? Why was he even caring in the first place?

 _What to do, what to do? What would Ashton do in a time like this?_ Luke thought frantically, trying to keep an open ear for more complaints from the redhead (which, he did, and one of the comebacks from him was quite sassy) and as soon as an idea popped into the blond’s head, he decided to go for it.

He stood up, his hands shaking, and he held onto his drink and phone tightly as he made his way over to the redhead who was getting pestered mercilessly.

“Hey!” he shouted, but he tried to be friendly toward the boy. There was a bit of a glare in the boy’s eyes, Luke almost swooned at the color of them, but he continued, going along with his plan. “There you are! Sorry, I just got so caught up in texting Ash that I didn’t see when you came back. Is Cal still with you, or…?” Luke said, looking around and trying to find his friend even though the Kiwi boy wasn’t even there to begin with. He then looked down at the redhead again, seeing the confusion in his eyes and Luke interrupted with, “who’s this? Is he bugging you?”

Luke could physically and emotionally feel how silently grateful the redheaded boy was. “Uh, yeah, he is. And no, Cal’s not with me. I think she went to go and dance with that green-haired dude over there.” _Wrong gender, but whatever_ , Luke thought as he took a seat next to the boy. _At least you’re playing along and that’s all that matters_. Luke looked at the guy next to the redhead, and decided that since he was really close to him -- _because really? Come on, there are boundaries, man!_ \-- he decided to call the guy Creepy Guy. It fit him very nicely.

“Oh, weird. She normally doesn’t like--”

“I was talking to him first,” Creepy Guy interrupted and Luke glared daggers up at him.

“I’m his best friend. Leave.”

“I don’t care who you are, comin’ in here and talking about whoever. Leave us alone, I was about ready to wrap this pretty little one up and take him home with me.” Creepy Guy leaned in closer to the redhead and the redhead looked over at Luke.

Luke watched as the boy moved closer to him, a certain hope in his eyes that Luke could make Creepy Guy go away. Luke pushed away the thought of the fact that their thighs and knees were touching underneath the table, because he needed to focus on the job at hand. _This was not the time for those thoughts, especially with that asshole leaning on him_ , Luke thought silently to himself. _What a fuckin’ creep_. Creepy Guy tugged on the redhead's shoulder, seemingly ignoring the redhead's complaints like he had been doing the entire time.

 _Wow_. Luke gritted his teeth and the redheaded boy shook his head, scooting closer to the blond, who ended up feeling a little sense of protectiveness over him. And, just to fuck with Creepy Guy, he placed his arm around the boy’s shoulders, swatting away Creepy Guy's hand and keeping the redhead closer to him than ever. _Fuckin’ touch him. I dare you_.

“I already told you, I’m not interested, get the fuck away from me,” the redhead replied, taking a sip of his drink and setting the cup down. Luke almost wanted to give him _his_ soda, just in case he wanted something else, but he figured that would’ve been just as creepy as Creepy Guy and decided on taking a sip of his Coke instead.

“And what if I don’t want to?” Creepy Guy mumbled, sharply grabbing onto the redhead’s hair and running his nasty fingers all over his precious locks, and without thinking -- Luke smacked Creepy Guy’s hand away.

“He said get the fuck away, so _get the fuck away from him_ , regardless if you want to or not.” Luke defended through gritted teeth. “Don’t fucking _touch_ him with your nasty-ass hands, either.” There was a look in Creepy Guy’s eyes that said he wanted to fight, but the bartender asked if something were the matter, in which Luke replied, “he won’t leave my best friend alone.”

The bartender seemed to notice the look in Luke’s eyes, and even in the redhead’s eyes, and she said sternly, “Sir. You need to leave. Now.” There was a grumble of how he _never gets to do what he wants_ and he was _just kidding, the bitch is too ugly anyway_ from Creepy Guy as he walked off, his hands in his pockets, and the bartender rolled her eyes. “Ugh. I hate when people do that,” she mumbled, continuing to clean off the counter.

“Thanks, you know,” the redhead said quietly after the bartender left, and Luke snickered a bit. “He was just bothering me and I’m sorry you had to get involved.”

Luke shook his head. “No, really, it was fine. I just wanted to help,” he said with a small smile, and the boy with the red hair looked up at him, smiling a bit too.

The moment was quickly ruined when Luke realized after a split second that the two were still very close to each other, and _fuck_ , what if now the redhead thought he was the new Creepy Guy? They awkwardly scooted away from each other, the redhead laughing and hiding his face and Luke staring down at the bubbles in his Coke.

“Sorry,” they both mumbled at the same time, and Luke glanced over at the redhead.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Luke said, finishing up the last of his soda and he set the glass down. “My name’s Luke.”

“Michael,” the redhead replied, looking at the boy and playing with the sleeves on his sweater. Luke sighed. _Michael_. “I think sitting here at a bar was a pretty bad idea,” he said out of the blue and Luke smiled a bit, nodding his head.

“That was what I was thinking, sitting over there and doing nothing until, you know. I mean, I even ordered a Coke. How lame is that?” Luke snickered a bit to himself, feeling a little proud of himself whenever Michael flashed a smile toward him.

"Hey, it's lame but it's smart..."

"True... Hey, Michael, do you want to maybe go out somewhere else? I hear there’s this killer pizza place down the street from a small bookstore that my friend works at, and it’s open twenty-four seven. I only want to get to know you better, if that's okay? We could eat pizza and then read at the bookstore -- or bug my friend, either one. Just so we can get out of this place, there’s too many creeps hangin’ out around here.”

“Pizza’s my favorite,” Michael grinned, and Luke could tell that he was excited and it brought a smile to his face. But, that almost dropped whenever he asked, “are you sure you’re not gonna pull a Creepy Guy on me?”

“I pinky-swear.” Luke said, holding up his pinky. “You can break my pinky if I make you uncomfortable in any way. I give you full permission.”

Michael paused for a moment before shrugging and pinky-swearing, keeping his pinky hooked on Luke’s longer than Luke thought he would. “You better not end up with a broken pinky.”

“I won’t. Come on, let’s go.” Luke said and Michael laughed, getting up off of the stool and following the blond out the door. “Can I put my arm around your shoulder, Michael?”

“Why?”

“Friendship?”

There was a pause. And then a smile. “Eh, sure, whatever. Go ahead.” Michael laughed as they got into Luke's car, and the taller blond turned the engine on, making sure that everything was situated before leaving the bar, heading over to the pizza place for a quick, nice dinner with his new friend.

Maybe going to the bar based off of a gut feeling, based off of _something's gonna happen today_ wasn't such a bad idea. Of course, Calum was definitely gonna have to be the one up at three AM hearing about Luke’s stories about today (only Luke won’t be complaining the entire time).

Yeah, what happened to him tonight was _definitely_ a good thing.

**.x.**


	10. chocolate peppermint mocha [cashton]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Calum,” the curly haired girl called, turning around and closing the cup with a lid, placing it on the counter. “There you go, have a good day.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this one was so short! i just wanted to have a cute little cashton ficlet haha  
> I NEED TO UPDATE THE ROBOT!ASHTON AU I KNOW IM SORRY IM HORRIBLE I NEED TO DO THAT but until then pls enjoy me genderbending ashton for no reason whatsoever  
> coffeeshop aus are the best kind of aus ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* \\(◕‿◕✿)/ *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

This was Calum’s third time coming to the sweet little coffee shop on the corner of the street this week. Luke had gotten him hooked on the chocolate mocha they were making, where they also fused it with peppermint for the holidays and Calum absolutely wanted more of it. They also had good baking skills, made by the shop’s owner and Calum had never been disappointed by the brownies, thanks to Luke.

As he opened the door to the shop, smelling the wonderful smell of coffee beans and cake, he had noticed the same worker who had been working there every single time the Kiwi boy walked in this week. Well, that was a little awkward, but it was only a Tuesday and so that was socially acceptable, right? To come here for the third time in a week? Probably not, but as long as the worker was doing her job, she shouldn’t be able to judge.

Plus, all he wanted was a brownie and a peppermint chocolate mocha, and that was it. There was a shout from Michelene, who happened to cleaning off tables, as soon as she realized who was here. Calum said hello back to the girl, standing a little back by the door so it didn’t seem like he was ready to order -- even though he knew exactly what he wanted.

“Hey, Michael,” he said, knowing that was what the girl wanted to be called. “How’s your boyfriend doing?”

“You would know, he told me he was too busy to text me because he was working with you on homework,” Michael grumbled, slapping the table with her wash cloth and caused a poor old man to flinch. “Though I’m pretty sure you’re not doing homework and I need to kick Luke’s butt for lying to me whenever I get off my shift.” She slapped the cloth against the table again. “Sorry, Dave,” she said as the man told her she scared him.

“Please do, he got me hooked on the double chocolate fudge brownie you guys have and I hate him. I’m gonna get fat.” Calum joked and Michael rolled her eyes.

“Shut the fuck up,” she mumbled, stepping closer to the Kiwi boy just so Dave couldn’t hear her cuss. “You do squats every day,” she placed a hand on his arms, squeezing them for added effect. “Don’t you frickin’ tell me you’re gonna get fat. Go order like, seven brownies already, and shove them all in your face.” Michael grumbled, swatting him with the wash cloth and Calum grimaced.

“Fine, fine,” he grumbled, stepping forward to the counter. He hadn’t really looked at the girl close enough, he was always messing around with Luke or looking up at the menu or just barely paying attention, but he had never seemed to miss how cute she was, with glasses and dimples decorating her face. “Can I have a--”

“Double chocolate fudge brownie and a large chocolate peppermint mocha, nonfat milk?” The girl, Ashton, said and Calum looked at her, his cheeks heating up faster than he wanted them to. “Is that right?”

“Y-Yeah, that’s completely right,” he agreed, nodding his head and pulling out his wallet. “Was it really that repetitive?”

“I just really like the mocha and brownies too, and I order the mocha with nonfat milk,” Ashton said before adding up everything and telling him the total, and Calum had to remember to breathe before handing her his card because _holy shit_ , that was really _cute_. “I really like the mocha, especially with the peppermint in it.” She handed back the card and receipt, and she grabbed a cup for the mocha. “What’s your name?”

“Are you gonna surprise me and remember that one too?” Calum asked teasingly and Michael came up from behind him, yelling out his name just to help the blushing girl out whose cheeks were probably burning. _Shit, she’s cute…_ “Yeah, it’s Calum,” he agreed, pocketing his wallet.

She started to write the name on the cup, and Calum was almost curious as to see if she spelled it right, but decided that he didn’t really care about that. It wasn’t like he was going to Instagram it later anyway. She turned around and started to work on making the mocha. “Can you get him the brownie, Mikey?” she asked.

Calum also decided he didn’t care that Michael was back behind the counter with her, and he pretended he couldn’t see Michael whispering something in her ear before turning back around to socialize with the Kiwi boy. “So, you want the double chocolate fudge brownie, hm? Did you get seven like I told you to?”

Calum laughed. “Ha, no. I only got one, and that’s all you better give me otherwise you’re paying for them,” he said as Michael rolled her eyes, leaning over and grabbing a brownie from the little display window.

“Fine, you buzzkill. Do you want it heated up?” Michael asked and Calum shook his head.

“Nah, it’s fine, not really feeling eating a brownie and getting chocolate _everywhere_ ,” he said, keeping an eye on the curly-haired girl who currently had her back turned to him. Michael snapped her fingers right in front of his face, stepping in front of Calum’s view of Ashton. “What?”

“You’re perverted,” she whispered, rolling her eyes and leaning up against the counter.

“I didn’t do anything!” Calum grumbled, taking the brownie from the redhead and putting up a hand defensively. “I swear, I didn’t do anything. I wasn’t even looking.”

“Mmhmm, whatever you say, Calpal,” the redhead rolled her eyes, looking back toward Ashton. “I mean, you totally were though.”

“Now you’re just making it seem like I am,” he pouted, because honestly. He didn’t do anything. “Not fair, Mikey.”

“Calum,” the curly haired girl called, turning around and closing the cup with a lid, placing it on the counter. “There you go, have a good day.” Calum smiled at her, even though she was blushing like crazy and it almost made him wonder what Michael told her, but he ignored that and turned around, saying goodbye to both girls working there and headed out to his car.

He placed the cup on the hood of his car to unlock his car, and he opened the door, placing his brownie in the passenger’s seat. He stood and grabbed the cup, getting in the car and closing the door. He took a sip, smiling a bit because it was so good. _Ashton really did a good job_.

And she spelled my name right, he thought afterwards, looking at the handwriting. Scrawled out underneath it was a heart, followed by _Call me! -A_ and a phone number, and Calum blushed immediately, grabbing his phone. He tapped the number into his phone, saving the contact as _cutie_. He set his phone down in his lap and the mocha in a cup holder, backing out of the parking space and driving off toward the dorm rooms with the silent promise to make sure to call the cute barista later on that night.

**.x.**


	11. they'll all pick on me [muke]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Michael and Calum have the opportunity to pick up Luke from his private school. It just so happens that Luke didn't want him to, only because he'd get picked on. Well, Michael's not gonna stand for it, and plus -- they're boyfriends. Why can't he pick him up? Who cares about bullies anyway?  
> ✿prompt from slinkies71✿  
> ♡for slinkies71!♡

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi guys! so i got a prompt from the lovely slinkies71 who said I don't know if you've received this prompt before, but I would love to see a Muke fanfic, where Luke (and Ashton) are notcool!nerds in a private school, and Michael (and Calum) are publicschool!punks picking Luke up after school in front of his entire grade/his bullies/ect, and see how everyone reacts.  
> and let me tell you this was a bit fun to write! ♡ i feel like i could maybe actually write a fanfic about this, a separate one, because that would definitely fun - maybe liz finding out what happened? idk. leave me a comment below if that seems like a good idea! (I NEED TO UPDATE ROBOTASHTON THO FRICCCKKK) ♡

**FROM: lukeybear**

**no, no, no i’m being serious please dont**

**FROM: lukeybear**

**theyll all pick on me please dont mikey**

-

That message made Michael not very happy. At all. They’d all pick on him? Bullshit, there wouldn’t be any way he’d have them pick on him. Maybe it was because he thought he was a hardass (public school did that to people) but whenever he read the message his boyfriend sent him, he would make sure to beat up any spoiled rich kid that bullied the blond.

But, besides Luke’s protests, Michael still got up in his beatdown Mustang with Calum by his side, ready to go pick up the boy from his school since Liz hadn’t been able to that day.

He had gotten a text from her earlier, surprisingly, saying how she couldn’t pick him up and she asked Michael to do it, since Ashton was grounded from his car from doing God knows what -- and Michael was _absolutely sure_ it had something to with the way Calum smirked as the green-haired boy read off the text from Liz (and Michael ended up teasing the Kiwi boy about it for an hour and a half).

“We only got caught, okay? I didn’t think his parents would get _that_ mad about their son sucking dick…” Calum mumbled to himself as he crossed his arms. Michael rolled his eyes, reminding him to buckle in his seatbelt, and Calum disregarded him (but ended up doing it anyway).

“You’re disgusting,” Michael teased, scrunching up his nose and the black-haired boy rolled his eyes, copying Michael’s reaction earlier. “I’m just saying. Though, I completely understand. Seeing your son suck dick probably isn’t the best sight to see.”

Calum sighed, resting his head against the window as Michael started to drive. “You’re just siding with them because you know Liz would murder you if she saw you sucking her son’s dick. Or vice versa. She would just shoot you in the face.”

“That is _exactly_ why I’m siding with them. Next time, don’t get caught, for one,” he said, pulling out of his school’s parking lot. “And two, don’t do it in his bedroom at nine pm, have I taught you nothing? Do it in the bathroom and turn the shower on, you idiot.”

“Shut the fuck up--”

“ _Anyway_ , I still can’t believe I got a detention for not doing anything.” Michael grumbled, deciding on changing the subject. He had gotten called down to the office, even though he hadn't done anything to deserve that, which was the reason why he was in a bad mood in the first place -- Luke just had to make it worse with saying that he didn't want his own boyfriend to pick him up in fears that kids will pick on him.

“Yeah, what was that about anyway? They said some other kid got in trouble too but I’m not quite sure.” Calum arched an eyebrow and Michael shook his head.

“Nope. Only me. I got sent down to the office for apparently having weed. I don’t have weed. Who the fuck just assumes I have weed? I still got in trouble though, even though they searched through all my belongings and found nothing, just because I had ‘disrupted classes’ with my ‘accusations against me’. Okay, _cool_ ,” his grip was tight around the steering wheel and Calum shook his head, muttering out how that was stupid and that he should sue the school. “I’ve been thinking about it for a while now, I’m not even joking.”

“You can’t sue the school,” Calum groaned, smacking his head against the window accidentally as they went over a bump. “Just, try and forget about it, okay? At least you can see your boyfriend today. Ashton’s _mum_ is picking him up from school. He does student teaching and his _mum,_ Michael, his _mum_ is picking him up. That’s a little stupid.”

“Only ‘cause you couldn’t keep it in your pants.” Michael mumbled under his breath and Calum shot daggers over at him. “Hey, I would pick Ashton up but you know, that would be a little of a catastrophe. Would you be able to keep your dick tamed if I were to pick him up in the first place?”

“ _Hahaha_ ," Calum muttered, and Michael was sure it was laced with murder, "shut the fuck up. It’s not like you _haven’t_ wanted to fuck Luke,” Calum said. “At least mine’s older so I can, I just didn’t see what the big deal was. I mean, yeah, they walked in on him, but at least they were the ones that didn’t knock.”

“Lukey’s turning eighteen in a few weeks,” Michael smirked over at the other boy, who just rolled his eyes again. “I can wait. And then it’ll be perfect, we’d leave school and then never have to look back and we’d travel the world. And then we would get married with this big wedding and be happy and I’d punch anyone who says different.”

“You’re _soooo_ punk rock,” Calum added sarcastically, and Michael nailed him in the shoulder lightly. “Definitely punk rock.”

“Whatever. Here we are, at the snotty school.” Michael said after a moment, pulling up toward the gates. He was stopped, however, and asked what he was doing. “I’m here to pick up my boyfriend, Luke Hemmings? His mother said she wouldn’t be able to make it and so she gave me permission to pick him up.”

There was a look in the officer’s eye that said she didn’t quite believe him, but with a check from the office, she allowed the Mustang to go through.

“Well, that was an experience,” Calum said after a moment and Michael snorted. “Think about that, no one would have to tell us no anymore, because once Luke leaves, Ashton’s quitting, by the way.”

“So you’re coming with us, then? I'm sure Lukey will like that.” Michael asked and Calum nodded. “Alright then, let’s not think about that right now,” he said as he put the car in park, parking it in the parking lot. There were already teenagers coming out of the doors, going to their cars or waiting for someone to pick them up -- Michael joked that instead of buses they get limousines -- and he felt like as soon as he got out of the car with Calum, all eyes were on him.

He locked his car behind him and the two walked into the school, obviously standing out with leather jackets and tight, black skinnies (well, and Michael’s bright green hair, but he always stood out in a crowd with that) intermixed with the bright purple uniform blazers for the guys and yellow dresses for the girls. There were a lot of weird looks.

There were _definitely_ a lot of weird looks.

Michael even heard one girl mutter, “who are they?” to her friend, having her friend reply with that Calum’s cute, but _the one with the green hair looks sick_ , with the word sick meaning like he was ill. _Wow. Alright then._ He understood he was pale, but he didn’t need a tan girl in a bright yellow dress telling him he looked sick.

He made his way over to the table, seeing the blond haired boy with his hair flat (what, he couldn’t quiff his hair? Unbelievable) against his face. His lip ring was supposed to be out, but Michael figured that since it was after school hours, he could have it in and even from a distance, the green-haired boy could see the stud. He seemed to be looking up at the ceiling, for what reason, Michael wasn’t sure, but it sure scared him whenever the two boys ran toward him, and Calum hit the table with a loud thump against his leg.

“Ow, _motherfuck_ \--!” Calum shouted but stopped himself when Luke glared up at him. “Jesus, you’re just as bad as Ashton,” he said, rubbing his leg and sitting down across from the blond.

“What are you two doing here?” Luke asked. “I thought I told you not to come, they’re gonna--” Michael leaned over the table, grabbing the other’s chin and pulled him into a kiss, and he almost wanted to flip Calum off for groaning out a bitter response. Luke managed to shove him off though, glaring up at the green-haired boy. “Michael, seriously, quit, they’re gonna stare--!”

“They’re already staring, you loser.” Michael grumbled, ignoring the looks of a group of boys that were near them. “Just don’t worry about them.”

“C-Can we please go…?” Luke stood up quickly, getting out of Michael’s grip and shouldering his bag. “Let’s go, I don’t want to cause anyone any--”

“Hey, who’s the faggot over here?” A snotty boy said, walking over to the trio. “Oh wait, they all are. Especially Lukey, what a child. Are you his boyfriend? What a loser, your hair looks like vomit.”

Michael turned to him, arching an eyebrow as his friends started to walk up behind him. “Oh? Have I upset you with being gay? Go piss off and cry to your mommy.” Michael muttered and Luke whispered something under his breath, looking over at Calum.

“Okay, so you two are actually gay? Wow, didn’t know Luke swung that way, we just always made fun of him for it. We thought he was straight, or at least that’s what he told us.” The snotty boy said and Michael rolled his eyes, but damn, that got under his skin. He didn’t even tell his mother for the first year they were dating, which really hurt, but why would he care if Luke didn’t tell his school? The snotty rich kids probably would kick him out for being gay anyway. Poor Ashton probably had to hide it too.

“Whatever. We’re leaving.”

“I’ll make sure you do, faggot.” The boy stepped closer to Luke, flicking the back of his head. Michael’s jaw clenched as Luke flinched, and before Calum could really stop him, the green-haired boy’s fist connected with the snotty boy’s jaw.

And they were out of there, after Michael had the audacity to hiss out, “don’t fucking touch him,” and Luke grabbed both Calum and Michael's hand, getting the _fuck_ out of the school. He grumbled as he got into the backseat of the car, though, saying that he didn’t need to do that and what Michael did was _crazy_. Michael just ignored him, turning on the car and zooming off out of the parking lot.

Yeah, it was crazy, but Michael swore he’d punch anyone who made fun of Luke. And well, that's what he did.

**.x.**


	12. forget-me-not [cashton]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Muke_Cashton_Love: How about one with cashton that is like, a soulmate one where everyone has a certain type of flower tattooed onto their wrist, and the flower starts off in black and white, but it slowly starts getting colors when youre closer to meeting your soulmate :3 (Idk if this has already been done, i just winged that entire thing LOL) I would write it myself, but i'd love to see what you can do with it!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> siiiggghhhh my writer's block still isnt over, i feel like everything i write ends up being bad so i hope this doesnt suck as much as i think it does! i just wanted to get this out because i felt like she was waiting and i really really liked the idea!! there are plenty of soulmate aus and i would like to also see what i can do with it! haha :D

Ashton had a forget-me-not on his wrist.

He had it since he was young, and he had never really questioned it since his mother had a rose on her wrist and hers was always super pretty, and he would spend nights looking at it. He always wondered why hers was better looking, colorful and almost blooming, but she had shrugged him off with, “you’ll understand it later, dear.”

What was he supposed to do with a crappy flower on his wrist? It wasn’t even colored.

But, his mother had told him that just like roses, forget-me-nots are of special thoughts just because of the name. She told him it’s hard to forget someone as special as him, and that made his night once and he had a hard time getting to sleep because he was excited. Later on, though, he had learned from his father (when he came in for story time) that he had a rose just like his mother’s, and he hadn’t ever looked at it close enough before, but then he knew what it was for. They then, instead of story time, had to explain to him that they were soulmates. Ashton didn’t really quite care at the moment how they met (since they started being all gushy and Ashton rolled his eyes playfully) but when they explained that he had someone out there with the same tattoo on their wrist, it made him excited.

So when Ashton went to school the next day, he had bragged to his friend, Luke, how forget-me-nots are the best flowers and that whoever else had one was probably as special as he was (which that made Luke a little upset, because who wanted a daffodil instead of a forget-me-not?) and so Ashton had to spend the whole hour making him feel better. He just wished he knew who had the other forget-me-not.

Thirteen years went by without a single word or sign of this ‘soulmate’ other than a blue outlining that had appeared and Ashton was just starting to think that it was fake, that the flowers didn’t matter at all and that forget-me-nots were forget-me- _always_. He was eighteen now, but it was still a matter of time before he needed to find a soulmate because even his _sister_ had found hers -- or at least that was what she thought and Ashton wasn’t about ruining his sister’s dreams -- and Ashton found the blue outer edge of the flower that he had had for six years now mocking him.

Even Luke found his daffodil partner last year, yellow matching both of their wrists as their flowers were in full bloom, and even though they hated each other, as soon as they said a word the flowers started to show color and match. Ashton remembered how it went down too, Luke was all blushy and the other boy was as well, and they avoided each other before they eventually had to get over it and they started talking to each other and apparently started dating.

So, it was safe to say that Ashton kind of _hated_ it -- Luke was always the one worried about not finding anyone with his stupid daffodil and yet he was the first of the two to find his soulmate.

“Seriously, I’m not joking,” the blond said as he walked into his homeroom, who he had with Luke and his boyfriend. “This stupid forget-me-not is gonna have that blue outline for the rest of my life.” Ashton muttered, dropping his bookbag down on the desk next to Luke’s. “Or watch, my soulmate’s gonna be like, Josh over there, and I hate that guy.”

“Hey, remember? Mikey and I hated each other too,” Luke mumbled, looking at his wrist with a small smile.

“No, you two hated each other _because_ you two were soulmates,” Ashton grumbled, “remember?” He glanced at the blond mockingly, sitting down on Luke’s desk and he sighed. “This is gonna suck. I’ve been telling myself that this has been a forget-me- _always_ flower,” he admitted lamely, watching him with a bit of a scowl. “I’m never gonna get a soulmate.”

“Oh yeah?” Luke asked suddenly as Ashton looked up at the ceiling. Ashton ignored him for a few seconds, but when he saw the smaller blond looking at his wrist with a shocked expression, he looked at Luke with an arched eyebrow. He felt his wrist start to tickle, like he had felt six years ago and his heart began to race. “Then why is your flower becoming more bluish around the edges?” Ashton’s eyes widened before he decided to actually look at his left wrist, and _fuck_ , Luke was right. The edges were becoming more colored in, instead of just the blue outline. He was excited as ever, watching as the petals grew blue until they were halfway colored in.

“That’s it?” Ashton asked a little impatiently after a moment. “I’ve been waiting six years for something else to be colored in and they gave me half of the petals?”

“At least that’s half the petals, Ashton, don’t worry.” Luke tried to calm his friend down and the elder blond sat down in his seat, grumbling a bit to himself about how half-colored petals weren’t the best thing he could do. There _had_ to be something else, something that could possibly make the colors move to color in the flowers completely, but he knew there wasn’t anything he could do. “I mean, that was a good improvement. I wonder what it could mean, maybe you’re really close to meeting them?”

“I just hope so. I’m tired of not knowing who my ‘soulmate’ is, if they’re even real.” Ashton mumbled, placing his head down on his desk and Luke leaned over, patting his back.

“They have to be real, I mean, look at how your flowers reacted.” Luke said, gesturing to the boy’s wrist and it just made Ashton groan, hiding his face away from his friend. “I just think it’ll come in a matter of time, okay?”

“You said that six years ago, whenever the outlines started to color. What if they’re not gonna be able to be colored again for six more years?” Even thinking about that made him feel worse and he closed his eyes. Luke probably was rolling his eyes, but as soon as he heard Michael ask what was wrong with him, his mood just plummeted lower than it was before. Luke shrugged, or he must’ve, because Michael hummed out a tiny response and sat down on his boyfriend’s desk, reaching over to play with Ashton’s hair.

“Come on, Ashy,” Michael mumbled, “there’s this new kid comin’ around today and I want you to meet him.”

Ashton and Luke both perked up at the sound of Michael’s words -- there was a new kid? -- and then they both turned to look at each other. “Do you think that…?” Luke trailed off and Ashton shook his head. There wasn’t any way.

“No, there’s not a single way that could be. I’d never be that lucky.” Ashton looked over at Luke, who then glanced up at his boyfriend.

“What are we talking about now?” Michael asked and Ashton lifted up his wrist, showing the flowers and how the petals were now three-fourths colored. “They’re almost finished though, I mean -- that has to be the new kid.”

“Who is the new kid?” Luke asked.

“His name’s Calum Hood, we were talking for a while before we had to go to our lockers -- which, you didn’t wait for me, you asshole -- and I mean he’s coming into our homeroom, isn’t that so cool?--”

Calum Hood? Where had he heard that name before? It sounded familiar but Ashton couldn’t put his finger on it. He could slightly remember the face -- babyish and cute with a wide grin -- but other than that he had no idea.

“He plays football,” Michael continued and the two other blonds looked at each other once more, both of their eyes growing wide. Calum Hood was a boy he had met playing football when he was twelve, and they had talked for a while after the game they had. Ashton was twelve six years ago. Six years ago he had the blue start to outline his forget-me-nots, and he had only noticed it after he got home from the game.

That was where he heard the name.

“He’s coming here? Today?” Ashton asked, his hands starting to shake. “He’s here? Already?” Michael nodded his head, patting the boy’s back. “Oh god, and he’s in this homeroom?”

“You’re gonna do fine.” As soon as he said that though, the boy who was Calum Hood walked in, seeing Michael and came over to him awkwardly. “Alright guys, this is Calum, Calum -- this is Luke and Ashton,” he said, pointing to each blond respectively and Ashton could feel the colors starting to tickle his wrist like he had earlier. Oh no, oh no, he couldn’t be serious. There wasn’t any way that it was easy as this.

Calum said hello to Luke, who said a greeting back and turned toward Ashton, waiting for a response. Calum said hello to him after, and Ashton felt the tickle in his wrist become a burning sensation. “H-Hello,” Ashton said and he saw Calum wince. “You too?”

“A-Are you serious?” Calum asked and Michael took Luke’s hand, steering him away from the two and Ashton made a mental note to kill him later. The burning sensation didn’t go away and Ashton looked down at his wrist, noticing how the blue was completely filled in, the flower was completely colored -- and he looked at Calum, whose wrist was also a blue flower, also colored in and blooming.

“I guess the flowers are serious,” Ashton mumbled, hiding it afterwards and Calum looked at him shyly. “So, why did you move here?”

“Actually to try and find the person I had met at the football match.” Calum admitted and Ashton felt his cheeks burn -- but not because they had a flower on them. “Isn’t that a little lame?”

“Not really.”

“Good. Is there anyone sitting behind you?” Calum asked and Ashton shook his head. He was actually starting to look forward to talking more with him, and honestly, he was just happy that his flower was fully colored.

**.x.**


	13. mystery girl [muke]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke is new and is doing gardening in the yard, and lo and behold, he meets the cutest girl ever - who happens to be the neighbor. [genderbent!Mikey]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uggggh writer's block sucks im so sorry im so sorry guys. i hope you guys will like this, though!

The first time Liz had asked Luke to go out and plant some flowers in her yard, he had denied because he didn’t want to do that, he didn’t want to go out in the yard and plant stupid daisies and daffodils. But, the second time she had called for him to come down, Liz had found her son locked up in his room and she sighed, entering the room without knocking. “Luke, I’m not asking you again, I think it would be a good thing to get out and meet some people who are walking by so you’re not stuck up in this house by yourself. It might be the only way you’re ever gonna meet anyone unless you physically leave the house.”

Luke tched, clicking his tongue against his teeth, but nodded his head toward his mother. She handed him the gloves and the hat he would need in case the sun got too much for him, and sent him out to work, saying that she will be out there in a few minutes to help along. Luke sighed, tapping away on his phone to his friend Ashton, telling him that he would be gardening for a while and wouldn’t be able to respond to his texts. He even left his phone in his box-filled room as he headed down the stairs, going into the garage to get the things that he needed in order to plant the bulbs and flowers.

He stepped outside, breathing in the fresh air and he placed his hat on his head, ignoring how it messed up his styled hair. He also managed to grab the shovel that he needed in order to dig. He grabbed a bucket for the dirt to go in so there wouldn’t be dirt all over the place and grabbed potting soil, to open later whenever he was planting the flowers. He took a second trip back into the garage after setting those things out, grabbing a watering can, filling it up with water from the hose.

After accidentally splashing himself in the face with the water, he decided that was enough and he turned the hose off, looking down at his shirt that was wet. He pouted a bit, the thought of Ashton running through his head.

He wondered how Ashton was doing.

He missed Ashton.

It sucked being the new kid in a town he didn’t know anyone in but it wasn’t like it hadn’t happened before -- his mother was very prone to move from town to town -- and so he was just used to it. He didn’t like the fact that he was alone though, and maybe his mum was right?

Maybe he would be able to meet someone new by coming outside into the open, like he had with Ashton previously; the two met by Ashton accidentally spilling coffee on him when he opened the door to the small coffee shop, and if Luke weren’t into girls, he’d be calling that fate (hell, he still called it fate anyway, because Ashton rocked).

He just hoped that they weren’t going to be some old couple who take walks at six am for no reason. Wouldn’t that be something? Luke becoming friends with an old couple -- discussing old stories from back in the twenties or some other old time period like Luke did with his family, or listening to corny old music but having enough courage to dance along to it -- and to be honest, he could see it now.

Not that there was anything wrong with that, he just hoped that the senior citizens weren’t his _only_ friends.

Luke sat down in the blank yard, looking around the spot where his mother had told him to plant. There would be the bulbs that would be near the door, so they would bloom as time went on. Luke was also told to plant the already blooming ones in the yard, near the sidewalk so it would decorate the pathway to the door and to the driveway -- and even some around the mailbox. He huffed out a little complaint, something along the lines of him wondering why he had to do it now, but he started with the flowers by the mailbox, just to get those over and done with. He got down on his knees, before grabbing one pot of daffodils and placing it on top of the dirt. He needed to make a hole big enough so that the roots weren’t showing, and he would have to cover it up with soil, then dirt, and then mulch (which, they would do after his mum gets it from the store).

Luke was in the middle of planting a daffodil when he heard someone rustling around next door, grabbing the mail from their mailbox. He paused and watched them -- her, he watched her -- and watched as she flipped through the letters and endless bills like she hadn’t checked the box for a while. She then huffed, setting the mail back in the mailbox. Luke almost wanted to say hi to her, but he was too caught up in the fact that she wasn’t wearing any shoes. Well, he was also too caught up watching her, noticing that she had tattoos on her arms, her bra showing through her tank top that matched up with her bright red hair, and could Luke see an eyebrow piercing?

Fuck, she was _cute_.

The girl looked over at him and Luke squeaked, ducking his head as he started to fumble with digging the hole for the flower. He kept his eyes trained on the dirt in front of him, scooping out the earth into the bucket.

“What were you staring at?”

Luke looked out of the corner of his eye, and lo and behold, there were two feet on the sidewalk next to him, toenails painted a bright pink color. He almost didn’t want to look up at her, but when she asked the question again, Luke found the courage to look at her -- well, kind of. He looked more at her hair than anything else. “I-I j-just moved in, with my mum.”

“And you’re planting flowers?” The girl asked, arching an eyebrow and yes, Luke was correct, she did have an eyebrow piercing.

“D-Do you want one?” Luke sputtered out, ducking his head once more and the girl laughed. _Shit_ , that was probably the stupidest thing he could say. Well, maybe not, but that thought didn’t help that his ears were burning. Luckily, the hat was covering them, so the girl couldn’t say anything about them.

“I would say yes, but I’m pretty sure your mum wouldn’t like that one of her daffodils are missing. Thank you though. Um… I like your Green Day shirt…” Luke looked down, suddenly remembering that he was wearing a Green Day shirt. He mumbled out a quick thank you. “No problem. So, you just moved in?” The girl asked, continuing on the conversation and drifting it away from the fact that Luke had _asked_ her if she wanted a _flower_. The blond boy nodded his head anyway, sighing a bit to himself. “That’s cool. The neighborhood is pretty chill. Though, I barely go out anyway -- and if I do, it’s normally to leave or to hang out with my friend, Cal, so I guess you shouldn’t be getting this from me.”

“No, that’s okay, I’d rather get it from you than some snotty football mum,” Luke admitted, standing up to face the girl, and he almost took a step back -- because she was almost as tall as him. The girl noticed the shift in movement and laughed. “You’re just really tall,” he added sheepishly, and the girl waved it off with the flick of her wrist.

 _This isn’t good_ , Luke thought, pouting a bit to himself, _she’s so cute_.

“Don’t worry, I hear that a lot,” the girl laughed once more, a little embarrassed that time, and she ran a hand through her hair and damn, Luke was sold.

“N-No, I don’t mean that as a bad thing, you have very, um, long legs. Like I do. Uh…” Luke mumbled, and he could bet on his own mother that his cheeks were a bright red, almost as bright as the girl’s hair. “Sorry.”

“You’re not very good at talking with people, are you?” she asked quietly, looking at the boy with a bit of a smile on her face. “I mean, that sounded a bit mean… Shit, I just meant--”

“Cute people. I’m not very good at talking to cute people,” Luke finally smiled back at her, his cheeks burning against his pale skin. “Because you’re really kinda cute.”

“Hmm. You also compliment people a lot,” the girl was now smiling brighter, standing closer to Luke and he smiled, hiding his hands behind his back. “Well, thank you. I appreciate that. You’re not so bad yourself…” the girl looked up at the boy and snickered a bit, playing with the edges of her tank top. “Um, I should probably let you get back to gardening, I have a boiling pot of water on the stove.”

“A-Ah, okay, okay.”

She smiled. “It was nice to meet you, um…?”

“Luke,” the blond boy said, almost holding out his hand but soon remembered the gloves he was wearing were all covered in dirt.

The girl nodded her head, starting to back up a little before she paused, and she tilted her head to the side. “Do you think that we’d be able to hang out soon?”

“Oh! Y-yeah, absolutely. It’d be better than sitting in my room by myself.” _Fuck_ , did he just say that out loud? He was about to say something else -- something along the lines of _can I get your number_ or something cooler than what he had originally said -- whenever she nodded her head, saying that she understood completely. “I mean, we live next door, so…”

“That’s true. Anyway, I should probably get back. Nice meeting you again,” the girl said and she turned on her heel, walking off toward her house. Luke watched her hair sway as she walked. He smiled, sitting down where he was before with his shovel in his hand before he realized he hadn’t ever heard her name.

“W-wait--!” Luke leaned back, looking over at the girl’s house, hoping to see her there but he didn’t and he sighed. Of course this would happen to him. He turned and saw his mother there, an eyebrow arched. “I had met someone, and--”

She smiled. “I knew you would.”

“I don’t know her name, but she said that we could hang out later…” Luke added and tried to ignore the burning of his cheeks when his mother laughed, telling him how gardening could always make friends. Luke would have to tell Ashton all about the mystery girl later.

He just wanted to know her name. That was all he needed.

*****

✿ **a little bonus** ✿

*****

Michael sighed, her heart fluttering as she walked inside her house, walking to her kitchen to tend to the water for her macaroni. She thought about how cute the boy was next door (and how much of a _nerd_ he was). She thought of his smile with the stupid little lip ring and how nice his name was -- Luke was so nice, so it was almost mandatory to have a nice name too.

Luke was a nice name.

She paused, looking at herself in the reflection of the microwave above the stove. “Shit!” she yelled, smacking her forehead.

Luke had no idea what her name was. Though, they were going to hang out later, maybe, she hoped -- at least they’d be able to laugh about Michael forgetting to tell him her name. _Wouldn’t that be something…_

*****


	14. puppylove [cashton]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I adopted puppies since the last time you’ve been here,” Ashton said over the phone, gaining the attention of the Kiwi boy that he was currently talking to. “They’re Mini Pincher Pomeranians, so they’re quite little.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy birthday Calum!! i'm so glad you're in the band and that you're doing what you love and i love you so much you make me happy. even though you cant see this  
> -  
> sorry this was so short, it's been kinda a rough day for me and i just wanted to get this out as soon as i can for cal's birthday. im a little late but in my defense it's 4:30 pm on 25 Jan so im not late here. x  
> yes i do have a minpinpom named maccan. i also have a chihuahua named shiner. so  
> HERE HAVE AN ASHTON WHO HAS LITTLE DOGS idk why

“I adopted puppies since the last time you’ve been here,” Ashton said over the phone, gaining the attention of the Kiwi boy that he was currently talking to. He glanced over at his puppies, knowing that Calum would be excited to hear that he had gotten them. It was a random, out of the blue kind of statement, and it didn’t really connect with what they were talking about earlier, but Ashton was sure that it had brought a smile to Calum’s face. “They’re Mini Pincher Pomeranians, so they’re quite little.”

Calum giggled, and Ashton assumed his plan had worked and that Calum was thinking about tiny dogs running around, with their high pitched barks to gain his attention, and the sound of their tiny paws hitting the hardwood floor. “I have to come over as soon as I can then.”

“You better not love the puppies more than you love me,” Ashton teased, and he heard Calum laughing over the other line. Good, he was laughing. That’s all Ashton needed. “Why don’t you come over right now?”

He could hear Calum thinking about it, mumbling to himself that it was getting late, but that didn’t stop him and he finally agreed, and Ashton heard him say, “Alright, I’ll be over in a few, lemme pack my stuff, bye Ashy,” before he hung up.

Ashton looked at his dogs, smiling. “He’s gonna love you.”

* * *

As soon as Calum’s car was in the driveway, Ashton heard Maccan and Cocoa barking their heads off, jumping up at the glass door and standing on their hind legs. “Maccan, Cocoa, come on, it’s just Calum!” Ashton said, walking toward the door and seeing Calum’s face as he saw the two dogs, and it made Ashton wish he was recording it. Calum stepped in, immediately kneeling down to please the jumping dogs and he was immediately smothered in puppy kisses. “They seem to like you already.”

Calum laughed, and Ashton smiled as the Kiwi boy grabbed onto Maccan, petting the little puppy’s head. “Who is this?”

“That’s Maccan,” Ashton said, smiling a bit and kneeling down next to Calum. “He’s the black one. The brown one is Cocoa.” Calum nodded and rested on his back, looking up at the ceiling as the dogs climbed over him and nuzzled up next to him. “I think they like you a lot, actually.”

“I get that vibe a lot from dogs,” Calum said blissfully, seeming to be in a daze. Ashton knew how much he liked dogs. “Especially from cute lil puppies. I love them already. I will pay you for them.”

“Um, no. I love you a lot, but not that much,” Ashton teased, snickering a bit as Calum pouted. “I will let you play a lot with them though, since Lord knows how many times you’re going to be over here now for them.”

Calum finally laughed again and Ashton stood, taking his hand and lifting the boy up off of the ground. The dogs started barking once more, trying to get attention from Calum again and Ashton scooped up Cocoa, keeping him in his arms. “So, what do you want to do?” Calum asked, smiling as Maccan stood on his hind legs, trying to get the Kiwi boy’s attention.

“Maccan, you’re not a person!” Ashton said, looking at the dog on the floor and Maccan sat after hearing those words.

“Does he do that often?” Calum asked and the blond nodded, looking at him with a smile on his face. “Bad knees or something?”

“Yeah, he does. He jumps off of everything though, like my bed, and it worries me a lot. Cocoa though is spoiled. He’s held all the time.”

Calum nodded, keeping quiet as the two made it out to the couch. “So, how about a movie?”

“Cal, it’s eleven thirty at night.”

“So?”

Well, he had a point. They didn't need to be anywhere tomorrow anyway. What's the harm in watching a movie late at night? If anything it called for more cuddles, and that was what Ashton was surprisingly in the mood for -- from both his dogs and Calum.

* * *

After cuddling with the puppies for two and a half hours (Calum paid more attention to them than the movie itself) Ashton stood up, looking at the boy next to him. “Bedtime,” the eldest said, and Calum tagged along, grabbing his bag from the table and heading upstairs with Ashton. The dogs followed along as well, walking up the stairs to Ashton’s bedroom.

“Am I sleeping in your room?”

“Do you love me enough to sleep in my room?” Ashton asked and Calum snickered, nodding his head. “Then it’s settled, you’re sleeping in my room along with my puppies. Wouldn’t that be something? You’d probably cuddle more with them than with me.”

"Nah, I love you too much to do that.” Calum shook his head, but Ashton knew that he’d cuddle with the puppies instead.

“Alright, whatever,” Ashton mumbled, opening the door to his bedroom. “Come on children, one, two,” he counted as the dogs ran past him into his room. Calum laughed and the two walked in the room, and Ashton closed the door behind them.

“‘Children’?” Calum asked, arching an eyebrow as he set down his stuff, slipping off his shirt. Ashton shrugged, getting changed into a loose t-shirt, taking off his pants and climbing in his bed. Calum soon joined him after turning off the lights, and the puppies jumped up on the bed, Cocoa stepping over Calum’s chest accidentally before snuggling up by the window, on the other side of Ashton. Calum snuggled up against the blond’s back, entwining his legs with his. Maccan slept on the opposite side of Calum, near the edge of the bed, and Calum placed a hand back to pull the puppy in closer to him before moving it back to Ashton’s hip. “You know, you never did answer me whenever I asked you what you meant by children.”

“They’re my children,” Ashton replied sleepily and Calum nodded, placing a kiss to the back of the boy’s neck. “They could be yours too, if only you’d visit more often…”

“I will have to do that then,” Calum promised, pulling the boy closer to him and snuggling up to him.

“Good, maybe then you can feed them at six in the morning.”

Calum groaned, but ended up laughing about it anyway. “Sounds like a deal.”


	15. see me now [muke]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He was Death. He was killing people who needed to die. There wasn’t anything humanely bad about it, but Luke seemed to look at him with this horrified face when he cut open his mother’s chest with his ghostly scythe, almost like he knew he was there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> from this post on tumblr: http://shotaqueenn.tumblr.com/post/109789781888/sheepy-doodle-twobearsforever-movie-about-a  
> -  
> sorry about not writing anything for a while! ive been in a weird mood lately where everything i want to write gets either dropped because i dont feel like writing or i dont think its good enough. its weird. so here's a reaper!Michael because WHY NOT. also triggerwarning: //death, //blood  
> -  
> also a big big bIG shout out to Muke_Cashton_Love because she wrote me this awesome story and i love it so much and yeah!! you all should check her out :D

The first time Michael had seen that boy’s face was when he was younger, around age twelve with nothing to live for anymore.

His mother was dying and Michael was there, holding onto his scythe quietly, trying to ignore the fact that he was told to end her life because that didn’t make Michael feel any better about his job.

He couldn’t just tell the boy who was in the room to leave anyway, it wouldn’t help a single bit. But, he assumed that was fine because he had seen a bunch of kids, much younger than this one, who had family members die, even themselves die, but it was nothing like seeing the light from this kid’s face fade. The boy was completely heartbroken and Michael could see it as he guided himself into the room, stealing his mother’s soul and keeping it contained in a vial marked _Liz Hemmings_ , which would soon be emptied out whenever Michael got back in _his_ world.

Michael just really hoped he didn’t have to have a vial strapped to his hip labeled _Luke Hemmings_ anytime soon.

He never really kept tabs on him either, just simply went about his job like other reapers had to do. He never really thought about how Luke’s face went from pale to even paler when he had heard the deafening sound of the single continuous beep from the hospital room as it echoed. Or at least, he tried not to. He was Death. He was killing people who needed to die. There wasn’t anything humanely bad about it, but Luke seemed to look _at_ him with this horrified face when he cut open his mother’s chest with his ghostly scythe, almost like he knew he was there. There would a certain time, though, whenever he would be able to see him, adulthood most likely. Not at twelve. There wasn’t any way he could’ve seen him. He wasn’t working in the mortal world, he was traveling through his own time. He was simply a teenager who worked for scything people -- and he was good at it.

Michael stared at Luke, seeing his eyes grow dark as he watched his mother on the hospital bed. Michael knew she had been sick for a while, his friend Calum had informed him that she might let go soon -- he just didn’t think it would be now, with such a small little boy in her possession.

Luke probably was wondering why it had to be her, why it had to be her that died instead, and he just happened to look upon where Michael was standing. Either way, it still gave Michael chills.

It still was not enough to have the blond haired boy worry about Luke Hemmings, though.

* * *

On and on again, Michael couldn't get the boy out of his mind. Maybe he should’ve worried about him. Maybe he should’ve exposed himself, take the boy with him to Calum, where he would train in their world and switch on and off, continuing growing in the mortal world.

But, he didn’t and Michael was called down again by Calum, telling him that there had been a murder and he would have to get the soul. That had been the seventh one in three years that had taken place at the same exact spot, around the area where the apparent troublesome boy was located. Michael agreed anyway and headed off toward the spot where he felt like he should just stay and wait for another murder instead of having to come back each time.

He was able to make it in time since traveling wasn’t too long, and he saw the all too familiar face -- one whom he had seen a total of eight times, not including now.

“Ah, Luke Hemmings.” Michael mumbled softly, knowing the other couldn’t hear him well enough to respond since he was too busy staring down at his bloodied hands. “You know, you’re going to get caught sooner or later…” he said, staring at the boy as he cut open the woman’s chest with his scythe. He watched as Luke flinched, breathing heavily as he turned away from the sight. Michael raised his voice slightly more, hoping to get it through the blond’s head. “That wouldn’t be good for a fifteen year old boy.”

When Luke mumbled out, “I know,” it made Michael pause, and the blond quickly grabbed the soul and put it in a vial with the woman’s name on it before it could escape. He didn’t need the woman haunting the younger boy at all while he’s on Earth. Michael hung onto his scythe, looking at the boy with a slight interest.

“Quit murdering people.” Michael’s voice was louder than it had been towards him and he hoped the boy took the hint.

“I want to,” came the quiet answer and Michael hummed, setting off on his way and not waiting for another answer to come from him. He was done with him, his job was getting exhausting as it was anyway, and he didn’t need to worry about a blond murdering people for no reason. He couldn’t even see him.

He could hear him, but he still couldn’t quite be able to see him.

* * *

Three years have passed since that incident with Luke staring at his bloody hands. Michael was definitely getting tired of having to come to that boy, Luke, who had served many convictions and whatever -- Michael wasn’t too curious about it. He had did it to himself, but the boy was out and apparently killed again. It was probably not the best idea to go out, but he avoided what Calum was saying and headed out since he knew it was Luke who had done it. Making his way out toward where the blond was located, it didn’t take long (travel never really took long anyway) and he soon found Luke huddled over a smaller female, choking and sobbing. Michael hung onto his scythe, leaning on it and sighing a bit.

“It’s your birthday today. You’re eighteen now, aren’t you?” Michael asked quietly, causing the boy to look up, his eyes blank and the bags around his eyes growing darker as Michael continued to speak. “So you can see me now?”

A hollow laugh emitted from Luke as he stood, facing the redhead (Calum thought it was ridiculous that death was dying his hair, but technically he was a teenager too, it wasn’t like he killed for the dye). “I’ve been able to see you.” That shocked Michael a little and he looked back, watching the boy with an arched eyebrow. “Why do you think I’ve been doing this? Well, there’s a lot of reasons but… I had to make sure I wasn’t crazy.”

Michael let out a little laugh, stepping forward and holding the scythe close to the blond. “You mean to tell me you’ve been murdering people to make sure you weren’t _crazy_?” Luke took a step back, looking at the girl on the floor. He almost tripped on the blood, but he had a wall back behind him and so that was a little comforting -- well, as comforting as it could be. “You killed those people to make sure you weren’t crazy? I should kill you right now and end your life now.”

Luke made a tiny little squeak, mumbling out that that wasn’t the only reason why he had done it and Michael arched an eyebrow, stepping forward a bit. He noticed the boy writing something on the wall with the blood he had on his hands and the redhead lowered his scythe, watching him. There was a little ping in his heart when he had read the words ‘ _coffee?_ ’ written out in front of him.

“Wait, what?”

“I like you.”

It took a moment for the words to click in the redhead’s mind, but as soon as it did Michael watched the blond in front of him with an open mouth and a glare in his eyes. “You know, you made my job so much more difficult than it needed to be!” Michael shouted, turning around and slicing the girl’s chest open, collecting her soul. "You could've just... Not murdered people!"

“W-Well, I didn't know what else to do! Don’t leave, please?” Luke asked quietly and Michael turned, sheathing his scythe. “Please, don’t leave, I don’t want to have to kill again, I don’t want to but I wanted you -- that’s all I ever wanted. For a time, I hated you, yes, but then I really started to like you.”

“If you don’t kill again, I’ll come visit you in the mortal world,” Michael mumbled, looking at the blood on the floor and on Luke’s hands. “You know, if you don’t get in trouble again.”

“I’ll deal with it…” Luke muttered, looking around at the mess he had made and Michael grumbled something under his breath before grabbing his scythe. “Can I come with you, instead?” The question made the redhead pause and he turned, watching the boy over his shoulder. “Please?”

“You don't even know my name."

"Then what is it?"

"I'm not gonna tell you." Michael sneered, rolling his eyes. "But coming to get you, that means I would have to come out of the mortal world, get you, and come back.” Michael said, playing with the pieces of ribbon he had tied to the hilt of his scythe.

“I don’t care, please…” Luke mumbled. “I really do like you.”

“Fucking god, okay, fine.” Michael cut through a piece of air with his scythe, stepping into the hole he made, mumbling out, “I’ll be here soon,” to the blond.

Calum was going to kill him. He was already dead, but Calum was going to kill him regardless.

* * *

 

Michael didn’t like being in the mortal world. There was too many odd looks from people he knew were going to die soon, but there were some from younger people and it made him a little upset. He might’ve also injured himself while getting out into the mortal world, cutting up his arm slightly being one of them, but he quietly walked his way to the blond’s house, one he knew all too well due to many complications with him, and knocked on the door.

He didn’t know why he had to knock on the door, he could’ve just walked in and sat down (since traveling like a mortal was exhausting) but he decided to wait anyway since Calum’s words were in his head. He had told his friend that a mortal told him he liked him and that he was coming with him, but Calum didn’t really necessarily like the idea.

Luke opened up the door, a smile on his face and Michael couldn’t help smile back, even though he was so used to not being seen (or, thinking that he wasn’t seen, in Luke’s case). “I’m here to take you back, you idiot,” Michael rolled his eyes and Luke snickered a bit, nodding his head.

“Did I need to pack? I packed…” Luke gestured over his shoulder at a small bag he had on the stairs and Michael laughed, nodding his head. “I’m taking that as a no. Whatever, I’m still bringing it anyway.”

“Fine. Let’s go. The less time we waste, the better,” he mumbled, even though he himself was tired. A nap would be good right now. He yawned.

Michael walked next to Luke, and it felt so weird walking with him and having the boy grab onto his hand whenever they walked into the street. “I really do like you.”

“I know that, Luke.”

Out of the blue, the blond boy asked, "What's your name?" and before Michael could stop himself, he told the boy his name. He figured it would've been the time to do it anyway, since he was taking him back with him.

“Well then, Michael, do you like me?”

It was silent before Michael could finally answer the question. “Yeah, maybe.”

Even though it was starting to get dark out, Michael could see how Luke’s cheeks got a bit of a red tint to them. “That’s all I need to know. I’ve loved you for a really long time, it’s kinda crazy, but--”

“You said love that time.” Michael interrupted, looking at the blond who ducked his head.

“I-I guess I did, it's the same thing, isn't it?" Luke paused before mumbling, "I’m sorry about making your job worse…” Michael remained silent again, just listening to the the pebbles crunch underneath their shoes as Luke continued to hang his head, watching his feet.

“Don’t say sorry to me,” Michael settled for, quietly. Luke nodded. “It was pretty stupid. I told you to stop murdering people and here I am, taking you away from the punishment you should get. Calum’s gonna punish you, anyway.”

“Who is this Calum and why would he be punishing me instead of you?”

Michael ignored the last part, thinking it would be some gateway to a perverted joke and he wasn't going to get into that. “Calum's my friend.”

“Oh.”

Luke grumbled something under his breath and Michael picked up on it, knowing it was something to deal with Calum being his friend, and the redhead rolled his eyes, explaining that he’s just a friend, nothing more. It lightened up the mood and Michael felt Luke swipe his thumb over his knuckles, making the redhead shiver a bit. “Still not used to you touching me.”

“Ah,” Luke smiled a bit. It was quiet before he mumbled out, “so, are we still on for coffee?”

“Let’s not think about that until you’re out of the mortal world, alright?”

“Fine. I mean, that’s not a no, either.”

Michael punched Luke’s shoulder. “Shut the fuck up.”


	16. don't you dare [cashton]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> from imagineyourotp.tumblr : Imagine your OTP has a young child who one day, unknowingly, says a swear word. Person A is horrified and scolds the child, making sure they never repeat it. Meanwhile, Person B can’t stop laughing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MIKEY DYED HIS HAIR BLUE WHO ELSE IS EXCITED BESIDES ME

Ashton was beyond tired. Running around at three AM with a lunatic child (seriously, that kid would not go to sleep) and his boyfriend hanging onto his arm, willing him to come to bed for some ‘fun things’ didn’t do well for the blond Aussie and he had almost told him to piss off -- but luckily held his tongue for the five year old. Calum gave up after a while since he figured it was useless trying to get his boyfriend in bed, since he already had enough to focus on, but that still didn’t make Calum feel any better about it.

It was now it was four-thirty in the morning, and Calum was sitting on the couch while Ashton was trying to chase the small girl. She was going everywhere but her room, and she was in the kitchen currently, hiding behind the table and chairs and the island they had.

“Oh, come on, you little anklebiter, let’s try and go to bed, okay?” Ashton asked, looking at the girl who happened to be in the kitchen. The two adults had things to do in the morning, they didn’t have time to be chasing around their adopted daughter. Ashton sighed exasperatedly, rubbing his temples a bit. It was like trying to put his own friend, Michael, to sleep -- only much, much worse. “Calum, can’t you call her over? Maybe she’ll listen to you, or something...”

“Ana, come on, let’s go to sleep, yeah?” Calum tried, and when the girl shouted out no, the Kiwi boy shrugged his shoulders, looked directly at his boyfriend and said, “yeah, I tried.” He then proceeded to get up, digging through his bag and pulling out a camera.

“This has got to be a team effort, you arse.” Ashton hissed, turning his back on him and instead focused on the little girl. “Come on, Ana, can we please go to bed?”

“But if I go to bed, when I wake up you’re gonna take me to the scary place where they rip out teeth!” Ana shrieked, standing behind a chair like it was a safe place.

Ashton pouted, shaking his head and telling her that no, they weren’t going to rip her teeth out, and it was going great and he had almost managed to get her out from behind the chair until Calum mumbled under his breath, “not yet, at least,” and Ashton could literally start to feel the blood boil underneath his skin. He was so ready to rip his hair out. He shrugged it off though, shaking his head and telling her that Calum was wrong, they weren’t going to rip her teeth out at all during this checkup and she stepped out a little from the chair. Ashton started to hope she was going to listen to him, but she pouted and crossed her arms.

“I don’t wanna go!”

“You’re going to do wonderfully, sweetie,” Ashton cooed, sitting down on the floor of the kitchen, just so she was at eye level with him. “But let’s not think about that until tomorrow morning, okay? We have to go bedtime now.”

“No! I don’t wanna go bedtime!” Ana shouted, slumping down to the floor and Ashton pouted even more, looking over at Calum, trying to get him to help. “I don’t wanna go bedtime!” she repeated, kept on repeating over and over and Ashton glared over at his boyfriend, asking for his help. Calum stood up, with that camera in hand that he had gotten while Ashton was dealing with Ana ( _thanks, Calum_ , he thought).

“You’re gonna record this? At a time like this?” Ashton asked with a bit of a scowl on his face and Calum shrugged, looking on the LCD screen instead of him. “Can’t you just set down the camera and help me get her up to bed like a normal parent?”

“I don’t wanna go bedtime! I don’t wanna go to the scary place!” Ana yelled, holding onto the legs of the chair she had been hiding behind before and Ashton sighed, running a hand through his hair before glaring up into the camera, making sure Calum knew he was in trouble with him.

“It won’t be scary once you get there, Ana, I promise. You’ve been there before, too.” Ashton tried and she still shook her head and Calum finally stepped in with repeating his sentence. _Wow_. _Thanks, Calum_ , Ashton thought again, and he figured as time went on, the more deadpanned that thought would get. “It’ll be okay, I promise. You’ll be fine, they just wanna check your teeth out.”

“I don’t wanna go!”

“Oh, come on, Ana, please? I’m really tired and I bet you are too, let’s just go bedtime!” Ashton grumbled, causing Calum to snicker a little into the camera and oh, God, he just wanted to snap the thing in two.

“ _Fuck_!”

It was like time almost slowed down for a pure minute, because Ashton had expected that to come out of Calum’s mouth, but never his own _daughter’s_ mouth. It was shocking to hear it, nonetheless from his tiny child. “Ana Mali Hood!” the blond hissed, and his boyfriend erupted with _laughter_ , which didn’t make anything about the situation any better than what it was before. “Don’t you dare say that again! We don't swear in this house, especially with such a bad word!”

The child then began to pout, her lower lip jutting out before she started to cry, wailing out that she was sorry and she ran over to Ashton, stumbling onto his lap and sobbing into his shirt.

“Just… Just never repeat that, yeah? Don’t ever repeat it again! You shouldn’t swear.” Ashton grumbled, smoothing down his daughter’s hair with his hand, and he kissed the top of it before glaring over at his boyfriend (who still was laughing). “Wonder where she heard that one before…” he trailed off, arching an eyebrow. Calum barely heard it, since he was almost doubled over, his camera in hand. Ashton had to repeat it a few times for him to finally answer the question.

“Hey, don’t look at me. It was probably Mikey.” Calum said, holding a hand up in defense, tears still in his eyes from laughing. “Knowing him, it probably was him.”

“It was probably you too,”

“Hey, you called me an arse earlier, _so_.”

Ashton rolled his eyes, taking this as an opportunity to pick the child up in his arms, and he decided to take her to her bedroom so that he could finally sleep. Calum must’ve stopped recording, since he placed the camera down on the table and yawned. “You’re tellin’ me…” Ashton mumbled under his breath and Calum snickered.

“Yeah yeah, let’s get her to bed. We’ve got a busy morning…”


	17. i'll stay awake with you [muke]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Imagine your OTP sleeping together in the same bed. Person A starts crying and screaming while having a nightmare. Person B wakes Person A up and comforts them. (from imagineyourotp.tumblr).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this is so short! i don't know why im having such a hard time writing ugh. i have a huge standardized test on next tuesday (some time in march) and im not looking forward to it...... :(

_One scream_.

That was all it took to made the blond’s eyes bolt open.

Luke stared up at the ceiling, waiting for another scream, another sign to know completely what was going on, because that scream came out of fucking _nowhere_. There was a slight whimper that came from the right of him, and the blond stretched his hand out, touching his best friend’s hand. Michael. However, the purple-haired boy was further away than Luke thought he was, and that just made things worse. He didn't know how, but he hated being so far away from people whenever he slept with them.

He peeked over at him, noticing the purple-haired boy had his head turned away from him -- what a strange position to be in: on his back, with his head turned away? In bed, he rarely slept on his back, for one thing, unless he accidentally fell asleep like that -- but he brushed it off, deciding it was nothing. Maybe the scream was from Calum instead, in the next room?

But that wouldn’t make any sense. It wasn’t muffled at all. It sounded like it pierced Luke's ears and it was so fucking close to him that there wasn't any way that it was Calum -- or even Ashton. It couldn't be. 

He stared up at the ceiling before lazily glancing over to his left, at the clock. It was three in the morning. Luke groaned. The room still dark with the moonlight shining in, so at least that was okay. At least there wasn’t any light to make Luke’s eyes bleed while he was awake. But it was also so early, and he couldn't believe he was awake now. Maybe he was hearing things.

Okay, that was a terrifying thought. Never mind.

There was a slight whimper that came from the right of Luke and he glanced back over at Michael, hearing another slight sound of displeasure escape from his lips. “M-Michael?” Luke asked lazily, reaching over and poking the boy's back. He shifted, and Luke immediately drew his hand back.

He hated waking up Michael. That boy would murder him if he woke him up, really, and apparently, no one could hear screams ( _thanks, Cal, Ash, I love you too_ ) and so Michael could _totally_ murder him.

There was a bit of shuffling and Luke noticed that Michael had completely turned away from him, his back to him now. The blond pouted, and was almost about to wake him up whenever he saw Michael then turn sharply. There was a little pant that came from his lips before he screamed as loud and as terrified as he could, and Luke paled at the sound.

“M-Michael?” Luke asked, a little clearer now that he had woken up a lot more due to the sound. He sat up, staring at his shaking friend, and Luke’s heart caught in his throat. “Michael, wake up!” he commanded, but realizing that yelling that to him wasn’t going to work.

Michael started sobbing in his sleep, shifting erratically back and forth, tiny and loud screams bot exiting his mouth. Luke grabbed onto his shoulders, and after that didn’t work, he climbed onto the squirming boy.

“Michael!” Luke’s voice shook but it was loud, hoping Michael would hear him in his sleep and listen to him. The blond was shaking almost as badly as the purple-haired boy was, but he knew it was only because he didn’t know how to handle this situation, he should’ve called Ashton in or something stupid like that. “Michael, wake up!”

Michael screamed again, thrashing his head around and trying to claw at Luke's hands as he held onto his shoulders, pulling him up, closer to him. Running out of things to do, he began to shake the boy back and forth, trying to wake him up and miraculously, the sobbing boy stopped screaming and Luke heard a small, “Luke?” Luke paused, looking at the boy in front of him, and his hands moved from his shoulders to his face, cupping his cheeks. 

“Y-Yes, you’re okay, you’re okay, Mikey,” Luke mumbled one after another, repeating the sentence as tears slipped out of Michael’s eyes. So many tears that Luke couldn’t stand looking at them, and he quickly pulled the other boy into a tight hug. “What happened?”

“J-Just a bad dream,” Michael mumbled into Luke’s chest, his hands shaking as he held tightly onto the younger boy. “A very, very b-bad dream.”

“You’re okay now,” Luke said, for lack of anything better to say. “You almost gave me a heart attack.”

“I-I’m sorry,” Michael mumbled again, quieter than last time, and Luke placed a hand over the boy’s ear. “I didn’t mean to wake you up, I didn’t think I was being that loud. Actually, I didn’t really know what was happening, I was just in that bad dream and I… I dunno.”

“What even happened?” Luke kept the other boy close, closer than he normally would’ve. “In the dream, I mean. If that wasn’t clear.”

It took a while for Michael to respond, and Luke almost thought he had fallen asleep. Michael shook his head. “...don’t wanna talk about it…” he said haltingly, suddenly clawing to get free from the blond’s grip, and Luke, surprised, let go of him. Michael laid back down, staring up at Luke with a tired, small smile on his face. “I’ll tell you tomorrow, maybe…”

Luke nodded his head. “Okay.”

“Thanks, though.” the purple-haired boy added after a moment, and Luke took that moment to climb off of him. He didn’t turn away like he normally would’ve though, he just kept close to him and wrapped an arm around Michael.

“No problem. Good night.”

“Y-You’re going to bed?” Michael asked suddenly, and Luke lazily lifted his head off of his pillow. He could tell there was something else that Michael wanted to say, like he had wanted him to stay up with him, but he just said, “never mind. Good night.”

“I’ll stay awake until you fall asleep again, okay? I want you to get some sleep.” Luke mumbled, grumbling a bit as Michael turned, but the purple-haired boy snuggled his back up into the blond’s chest to make up for the fact that he turned away.

“Alright, fine,” came the small reply, and Luke rested his head next to Michael’s, feeling his heartbeat on his chest and his lungs rising and dropping against his arm.

In a few minutes, Luke could tell that the other was just trying to get to sleep, or was at least half-asleep, and that was good enough for him and he quickly mumbled out, ‘ _good night Michael_ ,’ and then a, ‘ _I love you_ ’ which surprised him, but he snuggled up and fell asleep.

He really hoped the boy didn’t have another nightmare again that night.


	18. airport hugs [cashton]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> gave a running hug to the wrong person at the airport and knocked you to the ground au [fetus cashton] 
> 
> from here: http://guarneretoye.tumblr.com/post/96252441002/consider-these-theres-a-long-ass-train-and

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yaaaaay fetus cashton. idk why but its been so hard for me to write lately, i think its because my brain is fried due to studying for the act, which i haVE ON MAR 3 AH
> 
> also im soooo so so close to 100 kudos!! you guys are awesome ily all ♥

Calum tapped his foot nervously.

He hated waiting in airports, sitting by himself, especially whenever waiting for Luke Hemmings to get off of one. Because what if he never showed up?

He hated thinking like that, and he quickly looked over at Luke’s mum, waiting patiently in her seat. Well, he wasn’t technically by himself, but he was only with Luke’s mum and so that kind of counted, because Michael didn’t show up since he was busy.

Calum wanted to surprise the blond, give him this big, giant hug to show how long he’s been missing him since Luke went to his grandmother’s house all by himself. That was pretty brave for a fifteen year old, and Calum was pretty impressed by it, really. Of course he hated being away from his best friend, and Calum knew that Michael hated being away from him too, but it was just something he had to do (or at least that was what he said). His mother kept freaking out about it too, so that was a little worrisome how she kept freaking out, and it almost caused Michael to freak out about it too, only because Michael really liked the kid and Calum knew that.

(There was a lot of teasing that went on about it too, but Calum had sworn never to tell Luke about it. That didn’t mean he couldn’t _hint_ at it, though.)

Calum looked around at the airport, noticing there was a lot of people bustling around inside of it. Lots of men and women in suits, carrying around briefcases. Lots of children running around, playing with their mother’s skirt or their brother’s hair, lots of babies being held and Calum even heard a baby crying. He crinkled his nose up at the sound. He wondered if Mali-Koa ever thought that way about him whenever he was younger.

She did. Probably. He was sure of it.

Shaking his head, the Kiwi boy decided not to think about his sister, only because whenever he would get home she would be gone, sleeping over at some other girl’s house and he missed her a lot, even if he saw her everyday. But, he would rather be here at the airport, waiting, than hanging out with his sister. He was going to sit here and wait for Luke to get off the plane.

A few minutes went by, or was it twenty? He wasn’t sure, but Luke’s plane got called over the intercom as it landed, and Calum patiently waited by the doors. He tapped his foot like he had been the entire time, looking over at Luke’s mum as she watched him.

“You alright?” she asked, and Calum shook his head, his fingers shaking nervously. Why was he acting like this? He wanted to ask himself a whole shit ton of questions, but that was the only one that was sticking out at him in his mind. Followed by, well, what if Luke wasn’t okay? But he really didn’t want to think about that one too much.

“Yeah,” Calum replied, directing a smile over at her. “I’m completely fine, just a bit nervous for no reason.”

She hummed out a small little ‘mmhmm’ and nodded her head, and Calum turned as soon as he saw people pouring out of the exit. And almost instantly, the Kiwi boy was on his feet, running toward the people coming out, trying to find his friend he had been waiting for so long for.

Without thinking, Calum went for the nearest blond teenage boy, running into his arms and making him drop all of his luggage. The Kiwi boy hadn't thought he was running that fast, because even though he tried stopping himself, the two boys fell to the floor, the blond still embraced in Calum's arms.

When he heard, "what the heck are you doing, mate? Who are you?" Calum immediately lifted his head up out of the crook of the boy's neck, staring into deep, brown eyes that looked back at him with utter confusion, and a quick flash of _that’s not fucking Luke that’s not fucking Luke that’s not fucking Luke_ entered his mind. To be fair, the boy looked like Luke, or maybe he looked like this kid, but they looked like twins and Calum was just so confused and restless that he sprang up and practically attacked this fucking kid with his running hug.

Calum's eyes grew wide, and he began to ramble, wanting to climb off of him but he couldn't fucking move his arms. "O-oh, oh my god, I-I'm so sorry, I thought you were someone else, I only saw you out of the corner of my eye, I'm so sorry--"

Only the boy just laughed a little, and it threw Calum off of his fucking game so fucking hard and he paused, staring at the boy underneath him. Why was this kid laughing at him? Did he have something in his teeth?

Why did he care? He was never going to see him again.

The raven-haired boy sputtered out a small little grumble, finally finding the strength to not crawl in a hole and die and instead stand, climbing off of the boy and lending a hand to him. The blond took it, surprisingly, and Calum tugged on his hand a little too hard (he was still a bit flustered by the whole thing that had just happened) and pulled the boy up, accidentally pulling him too close to him.

"S-sorry," Calum apologized again, and the blond boy shook his head.

“Don’t worry about it,” the boy said, his cheeks a little flushed due to the incident. Calum felt bad. “That hasn’t ever happened to me before, so it was a little interesting, to say the least.” There was another little laugh that came from the small blond and he turned to pick up his stuff that had dropped due to the impact.

“D-Do you want me to help?” Calum mumbled quietly, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly. “I can help, you know.”

“No, it’s okay. I’ve got it. My little brother and sister are over there, waiting for me anyway.” Calum didn’t really know what they had to do with anything, but he was still determined to help somehow, but it didn’t really come out since this kid had told him no. How was he supposed to help if the cute blond had said don’t worry about it?

“Are you sure? My friend’s already over by his mum and they’re talking, I don’t need to go right away.” Calum said quickly, holding his hand out a bit. “I want to help, I promise. I feel bad for just tackling you and so I want to help. Somehow.”

The blond boy tapped his chin, looking back over at the other. “I-I… I guess so.” Calum tried to hide that he looked happy about that answer as he was given a suitcase, but the two strolled along, walking past Luke’s mum (she looked either very confused or very knowing, and it made Calum feel a little uncomfortable) and Calum decided to strike up a conversation instead, to get his nerves off of it. Because the boy next to him was very cute.

 _Fuck_.

“’M Calum,” he said, just because it was the only thing he could think of besides the fact that the kid was very, very cute. Like the _wow, I’m glad I bumped into you_ cute.

“I’m Ashton,” the blond kid said and Calum felt his heart leap a little. _Fuck, this is how Romeo and Juliet started...kind of_ , he thought and shook his head, trying to get rid of the stupid thoughts. They started off with a bit of a small chat, a small conversation, but whenever the blond mentioned something about playing drums, Calum’s interest peaked and he muttered out that he played bass guitar.

Whenever Ashton made it over to his family, his little brother looked at Calum and smiled, and Calum felt his cheeks burn. Ashton caught sight of it, flashing a smile to the Kiwi boy as well, and that just hurt even more.

“I should probably go,” Calum mumbled and Ashton arched an eyebrow, but quickly fished for through his pockets.

“H-Hey, wait!” Ashton quietly said, keeping his hand out before finally finding the thing that he needed -- his phone. “A-Add me on instagram, if you have one? Or something?”

Calum snickered, digging for his own phone, and they swapped Instagram usernames before the raven-haired boy said goodbye, sorry for running into you again, and Ashton laughed and it made Calum so fucking happy for no reason. Before he could back out, tell himself and Ashton that no, he didn’t need to go back, he turned on his heel and headed over toward Liz and Luke, and immediately raised up his phone.

“I just got an instagram username.”

“What?” Luke asked, arching an eyebrow.

“I got someone’s instagram.”

“No number?”

“I crashed into the poor boy, give me some credit…” Calum mumbled, pocketing his phone.

“Yeah, we saw,” the two Hemmings’ replied and Calum ducked his head, ignoring their laughter. “We definitely saw.”

☾


	19. supernova [muke]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke adopted a five year old girl, Nova, and he is absolutely in love with the girl. She’s perfect. And, of course, a familiar face comes in. [older!5sos]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> guys you all are so awesome, i got 100+ kudos and 3K hits on this!! you guys are all awesome and i love you all ♥  
> i also figured out that this is going to have 30 chapters, so there’s gonna be 15 muke fics and 15 cashton fics :)  
> also just because i feel like telling you i didnt have to take my ACT on mar 3rd, its now on mar 17 >:)  
> (also this might become a fanfic in itself bc i love the idea lots. like they meet mikey after a while??? idk i just know i want it to be a fanfic).
> 
> THIS IS SO CHEESY IM SORRY pls enjoy it haha

“Daddy, where’s Mommy?”

The question from the five year old threw the blond off, and Luke stared down at his adopted daughter, sitting next to him on the couch. He then looked over at Calum, who simply shrugged his shoulders. _Thanks, Calum._

He almost wanted to say that _Mommy_ was Calum, but Nova probably would just laugh and say ‘that’s not Mommy, Daddy! That’s Uncle Cally!’ or something along those lines. He couldn’t just tell his child that she didn’t have a mother, that would make everything worse.

“Um, she’s somewhere, out there. Having a good time. She’ll be home soon. I promise you.” Luke lied, feeling a bit bad that he just told Nova that, but it was at least a little better than telling her she had no mother. At least that was what Luke thought, so he ignored the confused look Calum gave him and started watching the television instead. Nova huffed, pouting and crossing her arms, looking over at Calum.

“Uncle Cally,” she mumbled, hopping across Luke to get to the other side, closer to the Kiwi boy. “Where’s Uncle Ashy?” Calum smiled at the nickname, pulling the girl closer to him and the twenty-three year old started rambling off some fairytale story of how ‘Uncle Ashy’ went to the market to defeat a dragon but to also get some bananas. Luke laughed when he finished, and Nova clapped her hands. She giggled and laughed, but jumped whenever Calum’s dogs started off toward the garage door, indicating that someone was home.

“Speaking of Uncle Ashy,” Luke commented and Nova squealed like a happy child, and the sound made Luke smile even brighter. “He seems to be home from the market. The dragon must’ve been really easy to fight.”

Nova was already making her way toward the sound of the opening door, and Luke and Calum both got up to help Ashton, but Luke froze when he heard Nova’s voice, saying “mommy! You came home!” over and over, and Luke and Calum looked at each other, raising an eyebrow over at each other. Almost immediately, they were going toward the sound of Ashton giggling, and Luke felt himself freeze when he saw another person standing there, Nova hanging onto them like her life depended on it. Calum squeaked, running toward the boy standing there and Ashton continued to giggle, putting things away and saying how he met him at the store and Luke felt his _fucking_ blood boil, his cheeks heating up, and a strange sense of _where the fuck have you been?_ entered his mind. Calum mumbled out something happily before going to help his boyfriend put away things excitedly.

“Novakia!” Luke shouted, but it didn’t seem like him and it really startled him and his daughter, but she stayed next to the boy and Luke hated it. He decided to focus on the boy instead, and he glared at him. “I’m surprised your hair hasn’t fallen out yet,” was the only thing that Luke could make out and the other boy stiffened, removing his hand from Nova’s head. “It’s actually its natural color. Wow.”

Calum and Ashton paused what Luke had said, before Ashton grumbled something underneath his breath and continued to do what he was doing. Michael stood still, staring at the blond with more venom than he had to for a while, and it was honestly exhausting.

“Didn’t tell me you had this little anklebiter. That means I beat you. Where’s your wife at?” Michael asked and Luke’s jaw clenched, and he told Nova to go help Ashton and Calum with the groceries before grabbing onto Michael’s coat sleeve, pulling him up the stairs, anywhere far enough away from Nova so she didn’t have to hear that _no_ , Luke didn’t have a mother for her. He was able to get Michael into the bathroom upstairs, closing and locking the door behind him before turning to him.

It was silent a moment before Luke hissed out, “I didn’t tell you I got Nova, or that I don’t have a wife because I didn’t care enough to tell you,” and Michael froze, and the only movement that Luke could see Michael doing was his hands, his hands were moving and playing with the bottom of his coat. _Fuck_.

“You didn’t care enough to tell me you got her?”

Luke was expecting Michael to yell, to scream his head off like he normally would’ve done, but he instead heard the blond’s voice crack and Luke really did regret telling him that (but he wasn’t going to tell a boy that he fought with two years ago that he had gotten an adopted baby girl with no wife). He tried to justify it with, “I didn’t think you would care,” but he knew that wasn’t even slightly true.

“I had loved you and you didn’t even think I would care that you had gotten a fucking child?” Yep, Luke’s justification was totally not true. “Not to mention she thinks _I’m_ the mother.” Michael crossed his arms, scowling a bit as he did so and _fuck_ , Luke flinched at that last part.

“I had told her you -- _erm_ , her mother -- was out and she would come home soon.” Luke mumbled, crossing his own arms to mimic the shorter boy. “And I guess… She thought that it was you. I guess.”

“Well, I’m sorry that it was so horrible of her to think I’m the mother.” Michael muttered out sarcastically, taking a seat on the counter of the sink like he owned the fucking place (but Luke couldn’t get mad at that, since this was Ashton’s house after all).

Luke sighed, running his hand through his messy hair that he didn’t feel like styling today, and he sat down next to Michael, staring ahead at the toilet that was across from the counter. There wasn’t any talking for a few moments before Michael mumbled out, “I’m sorry. For everything, I guess. For the times that we fought and then didn’t see each other for like, how long? Two years?”

Luke nodded his head quietly, not really expecting Michael to say sorry and he looked over at him, feeling bad for the things he said to him. “Why do you have to make me feel like that all of a sudden?” Luke voiced out loud, gaining an arched eyebrow from the boy next to him.

“I didn’t do anything…” Michael trailed off, kicking his feet a little and Luke pulled the boy closer to him, placing a kiss to his lips and it felt as if his heart exploded with the familiar feel of the other boy’s dark lips, and he absolutely _loved_ it. Michael pushed away, looking at the blond with wide eyes and _fuckfuckfuck_ , he messed up, didn’t he?

“I-I’m sorry…” Luke mumbled, panicking a bit as he stood up, grabbing onto the boy’s wrist. “Just, please don’t go, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do that…”

“You didn’t mean to do that?” Michael asked and Luke flinched again, shaking his head.

“I mean, I did, but I didn’t, ugh, I’m sorry--” Luke mumbled, sagging his shoulders and trying to appear smaller than he was and Michael sighed, shaking his head and leaning against the taller boy, muttering something out underneath his breath. “What?”

“I didn’t mean to freak out. I just didn’t think you would do that.”

Luke nodded, hearing the girl downstairs shout and giggle and he assumed she was just playing with Calum’s dogs. “Are you twenty-four yet?” Luke asked out of the blue and Michael pulled back, a strange look in his eyes.

“It’s not November yet.”

 _Shit. Right_. “Oh, right. I knew that. I just can never keep track of dates and things.” Michael rolled his eyes, humming out something and leaned against him again, and Luke strangely placed his hands on his waist. “It’s weird how we haven’t seen each other for two years and we’re acting like we used to whenever we were in the band.”

Michael mumbled something again and Luke sighed, moving his hands to wrap them around his shoulders.

“Is it weird that now that I’ve got you in my life again, I still love you?”

“What about your wife?”

“Already told you, don’t have one,” Luke muttered, “and I’m pretty sure Nova already likes you. She already thinks you’re the mother. You could stay with me.” Now Luke was getting ahead of himself, already feeling his heart beat faster the more he spoke, and his stomach was doing flips and collecting butterflies at the thought. “You could stay with me,” he repeated as if it were necessary, necessary to him and Michael to hear once more. “And you could live with me and her.”

“L-Luke, I don’t know if that’s a good idea--”

“Michael, please.” Luke mumbled, making the boy look at him and they were closer to each other than Luke thought they were.

“You can’t just tell me to pack up everything and leave everything I have behind, just because you want me in your life again. Why didn’t you call me?--”

“You were mad at me. I wasn’t going to call you to get yelled at,” Luke said tiredly, “and you can take everything you have and bring it with me.” There was a slight hesitation before he added, “unless, you have someone else?”

“No! No, I-I don’t. I mean, I used to but I don’t anymore.” Michael said, shaking his head. Luke leaned down and kissed him again, before he could fully stop himself and was a little relieved that he could feel him kissing back. He ran his fingers through the blond's hair and could see sparks fly whenever they kissed, and it felt incredible. They pulled apart after a moment and Michael let out a tiny little sigh, one that Luke didn’t know he was possible of making (then again, he would always make that sound after a passionate kiss) and it made the blond feel a little better.

“Let’s go back downstairs to Nova, I’m sure she’s loving Cal and Ash but I’m sure she’d love you more.” Luke said quietly, fighting the urge to kiss the boy’s nose. It was stupid how they were mad at each other for such a long time, whenever really every time they were together they wanted to just this. Or, at least that was how Luke felt, and Michael nodded his head, heading back downstairs, hand in hand with the taller boy.

Michael was quiet, quieter than normal, and it was a little strange but Luke didn’t say anything about it as he found Nova cuddling up with one of Calum’s German Shepherds, and as soon as she spotted Michael she stood, watching Luke cautiously. It seemed that the two other adults mimicked her stance, watching Luke carefully as well.

“It’s okay, I think we sorted things out…” Luke knew there was still going to be a few problems, he was with Michael, after all, but he was willing to not lose him. Calum let out a little grumble of, ‘oh thank God,’ and Luke fought the urge to smack the back of his head. Nova looked at Michael cautiously now, mumbling out ‘ _Momma?_ ’ and the older boy looked at Luke. Luke nodded his head, saying that it was okay, and Michael knelt down next to the girl.

“Uh, yeah, I suppose… I'm home.” Michael mumbled and smiled, and Luke looked over at Calum. Michael and Ashton began to talk to the little girl, and she was starting to get really happy and it made Luke beam. Calum pulled Luke over to the side, arching an eyebrow.

“What happened up there?” Calum asked and Luke shrugged his shoulders.

“I’m not actually sure what’s happening. All I know is that we aren’t fighting. I think. And, he likes Nova. It’s just… Too early to tell.” Luke smiled still, even as he forced the sentence out. “I just hope he stays with me.”

“I think he will.” Calum patted the boy’s back. “Looks like Nova finally has a mother -- er, father? I guess.”

“I’ll just let her call him whatever, whatever she wants. It doesn’t really bother me and he hasn’t told her to stop yet. Though, I’m sure it’ll change whenever she’s older but at the moment I don’t care.” Luke said, looking at Calum. “I’m just happy Ashton found him.”

“Even though you hated him twenty minutes beforehand.” Calum added and Luke swatted his chest. “Okay, okay, sorry. But it’s true.”

“He apologized, I apologized. We kissed. Things happened in that bathroom.”

“Ew.” Calum said sarcastically and Luke had the right to swat at his chest again. “Sorry, sorry. Still. You should write a book about this or something lame like that.”

“I’m gonna hit you in the chest again.”

“Just saying.”

Luke rolled his eyes and continued watching Michael play with the girl, smiling and Luke felt his heart do a leap in his chest. “I wish we hadn’t fought for that long.”

“What if you didn’t? Then you wouldn’t be here.” Calum said, turning back to start some dinner. Luke sat, leaning up against the counter and watching the two boys play with the girl. “Just, don’t think about it like that. You two made up, somewhat, really. Don’t worry about it. You found him -- well, Ashton did -- and you two got it together. Now you can start your life like a cheesy romance book.”

“Thanks, Calum.” Luke wanted it to sound sarcastic, but it never did and Calum laughed.

“No problem, mate. So, why'd you call her Nova?"

A smile flashed across Luke's mouth. "Well, I mean, her name is Novakia, but I wanted her to have the nickname Nova because she's a bright light, like a supernova in space." It was a bit cheesy, but he liked the name for the blond haired child. "Is that weird? Also, whenever I kiss Michael, it's just a beautiful light I see, like sparks. So. Is that even weirder?"

"...Yeah, you're definitely a lost romantic. Does Michael know you named your child after how you feel when you kiss him?"

Luke laughed. "Piss off."


	20. wipe that smirk off your face [cashton]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Imagine your OTP just had a small argument. Afterwards, person A sneaks into the kitchen and tightens all of the jars so that when person B goes to make a snack, they need to ask person A to open the jar for them, which they do so while smirking cheekily, making person B blush and look away stubbornly. (from imagineyourotp.tumblr)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was actually so fun to write i like it a lot. ♥ vegemite cashton fights!! omg if only i could have a fic of a vegemite fight between cashton. that would be messy

Calum hated fighting with Ashton. Hated it down to his very soul because they wouldn’t fight about petty things, they would fight about the real problems and that usually meant that Calum wouldn’t be sleeping in the bed with the eldest tonight.

And he hated that more than fighting with him.

“Ashton, just chill, we’ve been fighting for two hours about nothing. I’ll tell Michael--” he started, but Ashton pointed his index finger at him and the boy shut himself up, otherwise he knew that Ashton would start yelling and he didn’t like whenever Ashton yelled. It never sounded right whenever he did yell angrily, and he hated hearing it. “Why can’t I tell Michael anything?”

“It’s telling Michael things that got you into this,” Ashton crossed his arms and looked up Calum, who simply rolled his eyes.

“Michael’s my best friend. You tell _Luke_ everything,” Calum muttered, mocking the boy’s stance and crossing his arms just as tightly as Ashton did. “I simply just went out with Michael and Luke and did stuff. I didn’t fuck anyone, Michael made sure I didn’t. We just hung out at a club and did whatever we wanted. I didn’t fuck anyone anyway, I don’t see why you’re upset.”

“Well, thank you for telling me that you have no self control, Calum.”

“Ashton, you’re freaking out about nothing, I didn’t do anything. I had Michael and Luke with me last night. We talked. We might’ve gotten drunk, but at the end of the night you were the one getting fucked, so I wouldn’t complain.”

As soon as there was a glare in Ashton’s eyes, Calum knew he had _fucked up_ with the last sentence.

“I mean, I didn’t mean it like that, I meant… Fuck. Never mind. You win. Go upstairs and do whatever, I’ll be sleeping down here anyway.” Calum grumbled and turned, heading toward the storage closet and grabbing some pillows and blankets. “And I’m telling Michael.”

Ashton just rolled his eyes and stomped upstairs to their room, yelling out that he’s telling Luke and slammed the door behind him. _Great_ , Calum thought, _there’s going to be a divide in their house now too. Knowing Michael, though, he’d probably make Luke be on his side_.

 _Whatever. I’m over it,_ Calum thought with one more grumble under his breath and he made his bed on the couch, and snuggled down in it. About thirty minutes later though, he got this brilliant idea of tightening all of the caps of everything in the kitchen, mainly the vegemite they had, just so in the morning Ashton would need his help opening up the jar.

After about thirty seconds of thinking it through, the Kiwi boy sprang up out of his couch-bed, almost tripping on the blankets as he raced to the kitchen, beginning his true plan of revenge.

* * *

 

Ashton woke up earlier than he had expected for the weekend, and he glanced over at the clock, noticing how it said it was eight am and he groaned, getting out of bed and walking downstairs. He looked over the side of the couch, seeing Calum sleeping there peacefully and he almost wanted to wake him up and apologize, he hated being mad at him, but he decided on letting it go out a little longer. He walked into the kitchen, running a hand through his hair before putting bread into a toaster, grabbing a plate from the cabinet and grabbing the vegemite out of the pantry.

There was a bit of a shuffling noise that came from the couch and Ashton let out a little sigh, knowing that the boy was waking up. There was footsteps that walked into the kitchen and there was a tiny, sleepy, “hello, Ashy,” and Ashton stared at himself in the reflection of the microwave, ignoring the sight of dark circles forming underneath his eyes. The footsteps came closer to him and Ashton watched him in the reflection of the microwave and he felt his heart leap into his throat every time he stepped closer. Calum’s arms were wrapped around Ashton’s torso, his hands sliding inside of Ashton’s shirt, his cheek pressing up against the boy’s shoulder and Ashton almost wanted to push him off but that would mean touching his bare chest and he didn’t want to do that. He was mad at him. There wasn’t any time for touching Calum like that.

“Just because we fell asleep in different places doesn’t mean that you can just be all friendly toward me again.” Ashton muttered, jumping when the bread popped out of the toaster. Calum pouted, pressing closer to the older boy and Ashton nudged him off, pushing him away. “I’m still mad at you. You didn’t ask me to come along, first off--”

“You were working…” Calum groaned and Ashton glared over at him.

“-- I know, that’s why I had asked you to come visit me at work so I wouldn’t be bored and _that_ didn’t happen, and then you just came home piss drunk and you fucked me and then fell asleep afterwards.”

“Oh, come on, Ashton, I’m sorry,” Calum started and Ashton ignored him, grabbing a butter knife from the drawer and placed it down next to the plate, grabbing the bread from the toaster and putting it on the plate. He then grabbed the vegemite, and was shocked whenever it didn’t twist open as easily as he thought it would’ve. There was a small laugh from Calum, or maybe it was a sigh? Ashton didn’t know but he heard the boy either laugh or sigh and start looking through the pantry for something to eat. Ashton tried harder to open up the vegemite, starting to struggle a bit and this was ridiculous, he was stronger than this.

What the _fuck_ happened?

He looked at the other boy, who was looking at a cereal box, and he considered asking him to open it, but what if he says something about it? Plus, he was mad at him anyway. He didn’t need him to open up the jar of vegemite. Maybe it was just that jar? What about the jam they had?

Ashton walked over to the fridge, opening it up and grabbing the bottle of grape jam they had and tried opening it, but that wouldn’t budge either. He placed the jam back and pouted, looking at his hands. He closed the door to the refrigerator and headed back over to his bread, looking at the jar of vegemite again. “Who was the last person to have vegemite?” Ashton asked after a moment, looking over at Calum as he ran his hand through his hair and Ashton contemplated throwing the jar at him. _Put a shirt on, Calum_.

“I think it was you.”

“But I never screw the lid closed this tightly.” Ashton grumbled, holding the jar in his hand and Calum arched an eyebrow.

“Do you want me to open it for you?” he asked and Ashton definitely wanted to throw the jar at him. “I will, if you just give it to me.”

“No, you’re not opening it.”

Calum paused, eyebrows furrowing together before he held his hand out. “Are you having trouble opening it?”

“...Well, yeah, I am, but it’s--”

“Let me open it, Ash, so you can have your vegemite, okay?” Calum tried and Ashton held the jar closer to him, staring at the Kiwi boy. “I bet I can open it.”

“If I can’t open it, what makes you think that you can open it?” Ashton asked, arching an eyebrow over at him and Calum stepped closer to him, keeping his hand out. “What makes you think you can open it?”

“Because, let me do it. Do you want vegemite?”

“Yes.”

“Then give it here.” Calum muttered and Ashton sighed, looking off to the side with a glare in his eyes as he handed the jar to the other boy.

He then looked back at him, watching Calum struggle only a little bit before there was the small little pop, and Calum wore the smuggest smirk he could possibly muster as the lid unscrewed easily.

The boy then gave the jar back to him, placing a kiss upon his forehead and Ashton blushed, holding onto the jar as he looked away from him stubbornly. “You’re cute.”

“Shut up, Hood.” Ashton grumbled as Calum laughed, heading back to the pantry to grab that box of cereal he was looking at. Ashton turned back around, spreading the vegemite over the toast. “Wipe that smirk off your face, too.”

Calum laughed once more, walking back over to grab a bowl but stopped, wrapping his arms around Ashton’s waist and he pressed his chest into his back, placing his lips on the boy’s neck. “‘M sorry, Ashy,”

Ashton sighed, pausing putting vegemite on his toast and he looked up a little, looking at the reflection again. “It’s fine, I just got a little jealous, I guess.” Calum hummed a little and planted a little kiss to the boy’s spine before moving and grabbing a bowl. “And no, I’m not mad at you anymore. A little embarrassed that I couldn’t open up a vegemite container, but whatever.”

Without thinking, Calum admitted, “well, yeah, I tightened all the jar lids,” and he flashed a smug smirk toward the eldest, who just straightened his back and stared at himself in the microwave door, his lips forming a straight line.

Ashton then turned toward him, took a scoop of the vegemite and spreaded it on Calum’s cheek and muttered out, “you jerk,” and Calum laughed.

“Oh, you’re on. Gimme some of that vegemite.”


	21. burned hands [muke]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Imagine Person A of your OTP accidentally burns their hands. Besides the obvious pain, they get extremely frustrated that they can’t use their hands for anything. Person B stays by their side, helping them with everything they need and kissing their wounds until they heal. (from imagineyourotp.tumblr)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the lack of a cool title or whatever, ahah. i did actually get the information from here: http://www.everydayhealth.com/columns/white-seeber-grogan-the-remedy-chicks/ouch-youve-burned-your-hand-on-a-pan-of-brownies-now-what/ http://www.mayoclinic.org/first-aid/first-aid-burns/basics/art-20056649 because i wanted to make sure that what i was actually writing about was actually true hahah. apparently butter doesnt work. i never knew that.

“ _Motherfucker_!”

Luke didn’t even look up when he heard the shout coming from the kitchen, and he knew it was Michael and so he didn’t pay any attention to it -- maybe it was just him messing up? Luke glanced toward Calum and Ashton, arching an eyebrow.

But immediately, as soon as he heard the clatter of the pan falling to the ground and a sharp wail come from the purple-haired boy, Luke glanced over the couch and saw him clutching his hands, his back to him. The three of them got up, rushing over to him. “Michael?” Luke asked, looking at the two pans that was dropped on the floor, the biscuits scattered everywhere. He turned the other boy, making him face him. “What’s wrong?”

“I burned my hands, you idiot!” Michael wailed, “this is why I shouldn’t be allowed to cook!” Luke fought the urge to correct him, since it would technically be _baking_ , since he was making biscuits for the dinner they were having, but he didn’t and instead took Michael’s hands, looking at the blisters forming on his reddened hands and Luke flinched, hearing the other boy let out a little sob of pain.

“Let’s put it under some water, okay?” Ashton mumbled and Michael headed over toward the sink, and Luke turned the faucet on, letting the water fall onto his hands and as soon as Michael let out a loud scream, retracting his hands back, the three realized that it was hot water that was pouring out. Michael whined, and Luke quickly apologized repeatedly, pushing the switch to make cold water pour out. He told Michael he could put his hands back in the water, and the other boy did hesitantly.

Luke looked over at Calum, who was on his phone, and he almost wanted to scold him until Calum said, “keep it under there for ten minutes. It’s like a second-degree burn or something, since there’s blisters.” He then tapped something on his phone and arched an eyebrow, “and then it says to wash it with soap and water, and then wrap it up in sterile gauze. Do we even have sterile gauze?” Calum asked and Ashton nodded his head, remaining quiet as he watched Michael keep his hands underneath the constant stream of cold water. Calum grumbled something under his breath of how _he forgot_ , and that he _was sorry_ , and Luke shook his head to get rid of the thought. 

Luke quietly rubbed Michael’s back, watching him as well and Ashton moved to look over Calum’s shoulder.

“Then it says after it is cooled, add like ointment or like aloe vera to the burn. Apparently lavender oil mixed with aloe vera is really good for burns, too, I didn’t really know that. Also don’t use butter. It apparently sucks and keeps heat in and has like, bacteria and shit in it too,” Calum read, shrugging a shoulder. “Also, ‘the burn effect doesn’t stop right away; it actually progresses for another 24 to 48 hours, in an evolution of redness, possible blisters, and peeling’, apparently. So you’re not technically supposed to put aloe vera on until twenty-four hours later? That kinda sucks.”

“What website are you even on?” Luke asked.

“Everyday health dot com,” Calum tapped something on his phone and arched an eyebrow again. “Now I’m on Mayo Clinic,” he giggled at the name. Ashton rolled his eyes. “Anyway, this one says like, if it covers the hands, treat it as a major burn and get medical help.”

“Oh great,” Michael mumbled, shaking his head. “I like the other website better…”

“But Mikey,” Luke insisted and Michael shook his head again.

“Do I have to keep this under the water for ten minutes?” the purple-haired boy said instead and Luke nodded his head, continuing to lightly rub his back. “This is so stupid… I can’t believe I did that.”

“What’d you even do?” Calum asked, not taking his eyes off of his phone as he continued to read about burns, and Luke tried not to laugh as the Kiwi boy cringed. “I hate burns. It’s telling me what third-degree burns look like, and they keep using the word _charred_ and I just--” he paused, cringing again.

“I touched both pans after I took them out of the oven. I took them out, left them out for a minute and looked at whatever you three were watching, and I guess mindlessly I just turned around and was going to put them on the cooling rack but… Yeah.” Michael ducked his head and Luke kissed the boy’s head. “That was pretty stupid of me, haha.” he half-heartedly laughed, and Ashton shook his head.

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it. We all do it.”

Michael sighed. “I guess.”

* * *

 

It was late at night, after _the incident_ as Michael called it, and his hands were wrapped in gauze and he held them close to his chest, avoiding bumping up against things and people. Calum and Ashton had taken over cooking for the night, and Michael had gotten frustrated and refused to eat until Luke had stepped in and made him eat, scooping up his spaghetti and feeding it to him. Michael thought it was a little ridiculous, and he made sure to voice it out loud that it was, but Luke didn’t really mind and he continued feeding the food to his boyfriend.

And as they made it upstairs after clearing the dishes off of the table and cleaning them off, Michael was growing tired and even more frustrated, and he kept complaining that the pain was still there. Luke nodded his head and rubbed his back, walking up the stairs with him.

“That’s what Calum said would happen,” he said and Michael grumbled something under his breath, and Luke tried not to roll his eyes. “Just come on, let’s get you upstairs and underneath the covers, okay?”

“Why, so you three can hang out downstairs again without me?” Michael growled and Luke shook his head, muttering that he was going to fall asleep as well, and it silenced the purple-haired boy as the other opened up the door. “This is ridiculous, I feel so useless.”

“It’s not like you can help it, Mikey, now sit on the bed so I can take your shirt off.” Luke had expected the other to say something sarcastic like he normally would, like _ooh, that’s so romantic, Hemmings_ , but he just remained silent and took a seat on their bed and that _scared_ the blond more than it should’ve.

He started to strip the boy of his shirt, sliding it over his head and making sure he didn’t touch the gauze or his hands at all as he did so, and he tossed the fabric aside. Luke leaned over, placing a kiss to the boy’s dark lips and he grabbed at his waist, making the kiss dirtier than it needed to be in hopes to lift the boy’s spirits. He pulled away and Michael’s eyes fluttered open, and Luke smiled a bit.

“Your breath smells like tomatoes.”

Luke’s smile turned into a straight line as he looked up at the corner of his bedroom walls, and he could hear Michael starting to laugh.

“Your face is priceless, Lukey.”

The blond rolled his eyes. “‘Bout ready to make you take off your pants yourself.”

“Don’t, I wouldn’t be able to.” Michael’s tone was suddenly frustrated and Luke let a small smile show through as he unzipped the boy’s skinnies, tugging them off of his legs as Michael held them out, making it easier to get them off. As soon as that was done, Luke heard his phone go off and he turned, looking at the text message from his mum.

“Mum says that she’s sorry that happened, shoulda been more careful”-- Michael rolled his eyes--“and she’s glad that we all got it taken care of.”

“You told Liz?” Michael asked and Luke nodded over at him. “That’s lame…”

“Piss off.”

“Can I wear your shirt to sleep?” The question threw Luke off his game and he looked at him, arching an eyebrow. “The one you’re wearing now. You’re going to sleep, aren’t you?” It was such an odd request, or maybe it was the timing that was odd, but Luke quickly stripped himself of the _destroy yourself_ shirt and turned, slipping the fabric over Michael’s head and over his arms, slipping them through.

“There,” Luke said, taking his pants off and throwing them off into the corner. He’ll pick them up in the morning. He stepped over to the nightstand, taking out his lip ring and setting it down next to his phone. “Is there anything else,” he said mindlessly before turning toward him, and he watched as Michael arched an eyebrow. “...You’re kidding.”

“I don’t sleep with them in, any of them.” Michael sighed, kicking his feet. “If I hadn’t been stupid enough, you wouldn’t have to remove my piercings.” He then groaned, leaning back and landing on his back, staring up at the ceiling. “I hate this.”

“Alright.” Luke said after a moment, and with a look of determination on his face he pulled the other boy up into a sitting position, his hands instantly gripping onto the metal on the boy’s face.

“Oi, be careful, will you?”

“I will,” Luke murmured and with one small pop, the piercing came out and he clipped the two pieces back together, setting it on the nightstand next to his lip ring. “Now comes the earrings.”

Michael groaned.

* * *

 

Luke sighed after he had finally put the boy to sleep, and he quickly snuggled in up next to the purple-haired boy. “I love you, Michael,” he said even though he knew the other boy was asleep, but he was surprised to hear a soft mumble, maybe an ‘i love you’ back? Either way, the blond yawned, wrapping his arms around his waist and smiling as Michael curled up in his arms, falling asleep.

There was a text message that Luke received and his phone lit up the dark room, and he figured it was either Ashton or his mum, probably saying goodnight, but Luke didn’t want to move and wake up Michael (or maybe he was too lazy) and so he instead sighed, sleepily drawing patterns on the older boy’s hip until he himself fell asleep, too.


	22. i'm supposed to take care of you [cashton]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> he could feel himself start to shut down, physically and mentally and with one more cry out to his friends, he felt his head hit the floor, the phone dropping next to him. And then everything went black.
> 
> (tw: feeling like self-harming, tw not being able to breathe, tw allergic reactions)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so i had received this lovely prompt from Lulu and it was basically along the lines of Calum has an allergic reaction to the painkillers he gets from Ashton. I will say, I didn't expect this one to be this long (its like 12 pages long in google docs) and i've been having writer's block but i wanted to get this out asap. so. yeah  
> also it was late whenever i was writing ashtons part and idk i guess i just started crying whenever he did  
> spoiler alert  
> also why is it that all of my cashton oneshots have really long names haha  
> enjoy!  
> ♡for Lulu!♡

“Cally!” Michael almost screamed into the Kiwi boy’s ear and he flinched, fighting the urge to cover up his ears. “ _Caaaaaaaally_!”

“Ugh, what do you want, Michael?” Calum asked quietly, glancing at the purple-haired boy and he watched him pout, and Luke grabbed onto Michael’s hand. “Seriously, what did you want? Or are you just going to continue screaming into my ear?” he asked as he sat up in his bed.

“You’re not gonna play FIFA with us?” Michael arched an eyebrow, ignoring how Luke suddenly tugged on his arm, telling him that Calum doesn’t want to play, they can ask later. “Piss off, Hemmings, come on Cally. Come play video games! We finally get a few days off from tour and you’re going to spend it cooped up in here?”

“How about you piss off, Mikey? I have a headache, leave me alone, I’d rather die than suffer through this,” Calum groaned, laying back down, and, in the process of doing so, accidentally thumping his head on the headboard. “Oh, fuck!” he whined, rubbing the spot he hit as he scooted down and rested his head back on the pillow. “That fucking hurt. Maybe that’s why I have so many headaches. I do that all the damn time.”

“Well… Ugh, fine. Lukey and I will go play video games. By the way, that reminds me… Now I know why Ashton was gone, he’s going out and getting you some medicine or whatever.” Michael grumbled, playing with Luke’s hand like it was the most interesting thing in the world and Calum nodded his head, gesturing to his phone.

“Yeah, I know, I told him to. Now will you please go somewhere else?”

Michael rolled his eyes. “So loving, Calpal.”

“And shut the light off when you leave!”

* * *

 

As soon as Ashton got home with his medicine, Calum was feeling worse. His head was throbbing along to a horrible beat and it was making concentrating a lot more difficult than it should’ve been. It was a little dark outside whenever Ashton had gotten home and the eldest slipped into his room, holding the bag of water and painkillers that he ever so pleaded for over text message to the blond.

Ashton shut the door behind him, sighing a bit and whispering out, “Calum?” to check if he had fallen asleep or not.

The truth was, Calum was only half-asleep, the pounding in his head keeping him from fully falling asleep, and he heard Ashton come in and shut the door, and wasn’t so surprised when the eldest put his hand on his forehead, sitting down next to him. “It hurts,” Calum whispered out back to him and Ashton nodded, digging through the bag.

“I know. I got everything that you wanted, except for the kit-kats,” the curly-haired boy said, and rolled his eyes whenever Calum muttered out _dang it_ , even though he knew Calum couldn’t see him scolding him. “Here, can I just turn on this lamp?” he asked, and Calum made a sound that Ashton figured was a yes, and he reached over and turned on the little bedside lamp on the nightstand to read how much medicine he was supposed to give him. He tried to ignore how Calum flinched when he did so. “...You know,” he started to admit but trailed off, soon ripping open the package.

“I know what?”

“I feel like a parent,” Ashton mumbled, “my brother and sister used to get sick a lot, or they would at least have headaches a lot or whatever, and so I would do this a lot.”

Calum snickered a little, resting his head against the pillow. “You said ‘a lot’ a lot…”

“Hush. Whatever, you know what I mean. I just like taking care of people.”

“It’s in your nature,” Calum mumbled quietly, playing with his hands.

Ashton nodded, popping out the pills from their foil covering and handed the correct amount of pills to the other boy, also handing him the water bottle he had picked up from the pharmacy. He watched him take the painkillers, smiling a bit whenever he swallowed them with water. “There, that should start to help soon… I should probably leave you be now.”

Calum wanted to refuse him, to tell him to stay with him so he could maybe get to cuddle the boy, but Ashton was already standing by the time he opened his mouth and so he idiotically closed it afterwards, nodding his head and sinking down into his sheets. “Alright then,” the Kiwi boy grumbled, sighing a bit to himself. In a sing-songy voice to make the eldest feel better about the situation so he didn’t worry too much, the black-haired boy said, “Goodnight, Ashton~”

Calum felt his cheeks heat up as he heard Ashton giggle, and the curly haired boy nodded his head. “Goodnight, Calum,” he said in the same tone that Calum did, and almost instantly he added on, “I love you,” and it really took the boy but surprise but after a split moment, Calum said the same thing back to him. Ashton laughed once more, turned off the lamp and closed the door behind him.

“I love you too,” Calum repeated quietly, as if he couldn’t believe he had told him that with that much feeling in it. He really did love him. Even if Ashton only loved him as a friend, Calum felt much more than that about him.

And that hurt his heart more than the pain hurt his head.

* * *

 

Calum had miraculously fallen asleep. It was incredible and he wasn’t sure how he did it, but he was able to.

Of course though, that didn’t last for long, since there was an uneasy feeling in the boy’s stomach and he felt like he was going to vomit. He threw the covers off of him, racing toward the bathroom that was luckily connected to the bedroom and emptying out his already empty stomach into the toilet, and flushed it afterwards. He groaned, cleaning his mouth out with water from the tap and headed back into his room, a bit wobbly as he walked.

He shivered a bit, feeling his heart rate beat incredibly fast, faster than it should’ve been at that moment and he tried to swallow, realizing that it was harder than it also should’ve been. What the _fuck_ was going on? As soon as he laid down in his bed, a sharp burst of pain erupted through his chest and he figured that couldn’t be good either. He sat back up, feeling a bit dizzy again and he almost could feel himself going cross-eyed as he tried focusing on the lamp on his nightstand, the one that Ashton had turned on and off earlier.

Had Ashton even turned that lamp on? Was that something he did?

Calum couldn’t remember.

He was too light-headed now to even focus on anything anymore and so he just forgot it, moving on to the blank wall and staring at it instead. He could tell his breath was shortening, so he was taking in more and more breaths, trying to get more air into his lungs but it just wasn’t working.

“Guys?” Calum asked as an attempt to get their attention, but he knew it wouldn’t work either just because they were being so loud in the other room. His breathing was becoming noisier, his throat becoming scratchy as he tried to breathe in more air, and he made this mental note of _maybe they could hear my breathing instead of me_.

He made the mistake of laughing a little and he ended up wheezing, falling off the edge of the bed, and he made a weird noise that was a cross between another shout for help and a wheeze. What if they never found him? He’d just die up here without them knowing. They’d probably replace him with another bass player.

That thought scared the _living shit_ out of the Kiwi boy and he wheezed some more, wanting to flinch at the sounds he was making but he couldn’t, and he shakily reached up to his nightstand to grab his phone.

It was getting harder to breathe and he couldn’t quite think of why this was happening to him, but it was and it was scaring him and so with two attempts, he dialed out the emergency number because obviously, his friends couldn’t hear him. As soon as he heard someone pick up the phone and mutter out, “what’s your emergency?” Calum wanted to cry out. His skin was starting to turn a bit of a bluish color and that wasn’t a good sign.

“A-Ambulance,” Calum mumbled out, trying to sound as coherent as possible, and the woman asked for his name and address. “Cal-Calum Hood,” he said his address afterwards, making sure it was the address of the hotel and not his actual home, which he probably would’ve done if he hadn’t thought about it, and he winced when his words sounded chopped up, but he couldn’t help it.

 _Air. I need air_ , he thought quickly, trying to expand his ribs, trying to breathe more to get more air in, but even telling himself to breathe wasn't working.

“What seems to be the problem?” the woman asked.

“I-I can’t breathe, took medicine,” Calum started to wheeze, his fingers shaking as he felt the need to throw up again. It was getting harder to breath and he could feel his head starting to pound along with his heart, that happened to slow down. “Please, help, friends don’t know, I-I can’t breathe, hurts…”

“Okay, sir, you will be alright. An ambulance is already on its way,” the woman said and Calum nodded, feeling the tightness in his chest grow tighter, and he felt like he could barely keep his eyes open.

“Th-thank you,” Calum said and without a second thought, “te-tell Ashton I love him,” he said wistfully, like he knew this was going to be it and the woman just replied with that she will, she will tell Ashton he loves him even though Calum knew that she wouldn’t.

And with one more quick breath he could feel himself start to shut down, physically and mentally and with one more cry out to his friends, he felt his head hit the floor, the phone dropping next to him. And then everything went black.

* * *

 

As soon as the three heard a knock on the door and then a key card sliding into the door, unlocking it, the room went quiet. At first Ashton thought it would be Luke’s mum, but she had texted Luke earlier saying that she was going to bed in her room. _Maybe she needed something?_

But as soon as there were an army of three paramedics arriving with a stretcher and a few firefighters that tagged along to help the paramedics, Ashton went wide-eyed as one of the men quickly asked for a _Calum Hood_ , Ashton’s heart leapt into his throat, and Michael muttered that he was in the bedroom. Luke got up, racing over to the window to look outside. The two boys on the couch watched him turn pale as his eyes widened. “There’s an ambulance here.”

As the unnamed men walked into the bedroom, Ashton quickly sprang up only to have Michael tug down on his arm, shaking his head no. The eldest shook him free though, muttering out, “I have to see him,” and he made his way into the bedroom where Calum was resting. He saw the paramedic trying to talk to him, getting nothing from the Kiwi boy in return and Ashton choked out a small, “Calum?” as if that were going to work.

He watched as two men picked up the boy and placed him on the stretch, hooking up some oxygen and other things that Ashton didn’t quite understand, but then again, he wasn’t a paramedic. One of the men came over to him, asking him questions and Ashton tried to focus, but he couldn’t because Calum just looked so… _lifeless_. Blue. Literally blue, his skin looked like a bluish tone and there were rashes forming on his skin. “Is he dead?” the curly haired boy asked and the man, Dave, shook his head.

“Just unconscious, there was a lack of oxygen. That sounds bad, but no worries. We’ll take care of him. Do you know if he is he allergic to anything?” Dave the Paramedic asked and Ashton shook his head.

“I don’t think so, I just gave him some painkillers for his headache, I didn’t think that… I didn’t think that he would be allergic or anything…” The eldest responded, feeling his hands shake with every word. How could he be so stupid not to check? Sure, he knew what his siblings were allergic to but he didn’t think to ask Calum if he was. “I’m sorry,” he said. He still said it even if he knew Calum couldn’t hear him.

But Dave said it was okay even though it wasn’t directed to him. Ashton shrugged it off.

Minutes felt like they dragged on for hours as the paramedics finally took Calum down, away from Ashton and the other two. The eldest sat back down on the couch, watching as the door closed behind the men and he felt his heart shatter as it closed, latching shut. The room was completely silent again, and Ashton continued to shake, playing with the sleeves of his long-sleeved shirt.

“I’m such an idiot.”

Ashton was finally the one to speak first and he should’ve expected the two to protest, but he continued on, ignoring their words.

“He must’ve felt so helpless, he probably called out for us and we weren’t listening because we were playing a stupid fucking video game!” the curly-haired boy knew that Michael would gasp at those words at any other time, but that time he didn’t and he was secretly glad he didn’t. Instead it just cut Michael off, and he sat there, sitting still as he ducked his head. It was a little scary to see him this quiet. “I didn’t ask him if he were allergic to anything, I’m such an idiot…”

“It’s not your fault, you were just trying to help him with his headache.” Luke mumbled quietly, and stared straight at the television, watching the pause menu on the screen. “We’re mostly the ones at fault, we were just playing video games and didn’t think to check up on him.”

“ _I_ forgot to check up on him, you mean,” Ashton grumbled and Michael smacked the back of Luke’s head, muttering out _way to word that weirdly, dufus_ , and the eldest would’ve laughed if it hadn’t been for the fact that Calum was on his fucking way to the _hospital_. Because of the painkillers he had gotten him. He himself was getting a headache as well, but it didn’t hurt as bad as the thought that he got those for Calum, because Calum was unconscious because of it. “Should we go to the hospital too?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Luke said as he was rubbing the spot where Michael had smacked him. “Are we able to do it now, or do we have to wait?”

“I’m not sure. I should’ve gone with him, I should’ve gone with him, I should’ve checked on him or something, how--”

Ashton was cut off by Michael practically bursting, and he watched the boy stand up, grabbing his shoulders and shaking the older boy. “You’re not stupid, Ashton! That idiot has been my friend longer than you two have known each other and I’ve never heard of any allergic reaction to anything medical! He probably didn’t even know either. So stop saying it’s your fault!”

Ashton just let his head rock back and forth with each shove he received from the purple-haired boy, feeling too exhausted emotionally to push him away. Finally, Luke slapped the boy’s hands away and he whined, retracting them back and clutching them to his chest like that actually fucking hurt, but Ashton knew it didn’t and he rolled his eyes, leaning back on the couch cushions. “But it is, though.”

“Well, _shit_ , if it’s your fucking fault for unknowingly getting him a medicine that he was allergic to, then it’s more of me and Luke’s fault for playing video games and not hearing him at all! It’s not your fucking fault!” Michael tried to argue, but Luke stood and grabbed onto his shoulders, pulling him away from the eldest and pulling him into the bathroom, probably to talk to him or whatever. It was quiet for a few minutes, but then the eldest could hear the boys start to talk and he instead stared at the screen, wanting to smash the console for distracting him. It hurt being away from the boy, and he bit his lip and looked at something else instead, the clock on the microwave looked better than anything else but he ended up spacing out anyway. His thoughts kept revolving around seeing Calum look so limp and lifeless and it hurt his heart to see him like that.

After two hours, he was driving himself insane. He didn’t really care, though. He had to see Calum. He needed to see Calum.

He was going to see Calum.

He couldn’t handle being away from him anymore, even if he was only gone for a while.

He knocked on the bathroom door, realizing that the two were still in there, and he arched an eyebrow but soon rolled his eyes. He didn’t want to know what they were doing. Luke was still probably calming Michael down or whatever, he didn’t really care at the moment. “Guys, come on out, we’re going to see him…”

The other two didn’t need to be told twice.

* * *

 

Michael had to drive. Ashton was too nervous, too shaky to concentrate and so he quickly climbed into the back, letting the purple-haired boy drive as Luke sat in the passenger’s seat. Ashton spied them holding hands, Luke rubbing his thumb over Michael’s knuckles and he couldn’t help but feel a tinge of _jealousy_ , because Luke had Michael and Michael had Luke and where was Calum? In a fucking hospital bed because of something he did. He was the one stupid enough to pack simple ibuprofen. Why didn’t he get ibuprofen at the pharmacy? He was so fucking stupid.

“I’m so fucking stupid,” he repeated his thoughts out loud as he looked out the window, his nails digging into his wrists. It felt a little good at the moment, but that was only because it was his nails instead of anything else. He knew that it wouldn’t feel good to do it though, he would be full of more regret than what he had started with, and even as the sudden overwhelming urge to do it grew more and more as time went on, he kept thinking about how pale and blue Calum looked lying there on the floor -- and he kept imagining how Calum would feel if he saw the eldest in the same position, a pool of blood around him, and that was enough to scare him not to do it later or even now, in the car.

(It didn’t mean that the feeling to want to do it went away, unfortunately.)

“You’re _not_ fucking _stupid_ , Ash,” Michael snapped, taking a right at the light and Ashton glared at the people walking and having a good time, looking up at the angry storm clouds brewing up in the sky, before focusing his attention back to the mindlessly charismatic people walking, like they don’t notice the clouds (or they just don’t care, either one). “It’s okay, you didn’t know. Calum didn’t know either. You’re alright.”

Ashton ran his hand through his hair, sighing a bit and resting his head back, wishing the clouds would just pour rain over him instead of anything else. He really felt like it was his fault, he was the oldest of the four and had to watch after them. That was his job. Sure, it got a bit tiring after a while, but that was alright for him because he knew the others loved him anyway. And to have Calum trust him like that, only for him to get him painkillers that almost _killed_ him (and not hear him shouting out because of _video games_ ) was a bit hard on the curly-haired boy.

“What if he doesn’t trust me after this?” he suddenly voiced, a surge of panic shooting through him and almost immediately he felt his heart beat speed up the more he thought about that certain shitty thought. It could possibly be true. Why would you trust someone after they just almost accidentally killed you? “I fucked up, what if he doesn’t trust me anymore?”

“Why wouldn’t he trust you anymore?” Luke asked, turning back to look at the boy in the back and Ashton dug his nails into his wrist. He hated the thought of Calum hating him, he cared about him too much, _loved_ him too much even and _oh, God_ , he put him in the fucking hospital and before he knew it, there were tears running down his cheeks and _fuck_ \-- he was crying in front of Luke and Michael. He hated crying in front of them.

He was supposed to be the strong adult, who cared after these idiots, not to be the baby of the group, crying in front of them. Though, it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, and before he knew it, he was sobbing loudly. Luke whipped his seat belt over his shoulder and climbed back in the back, sitting down next to him and hugging the shit out of the older boy. Ashton clung onto Luke as much as possible, his sobs becoming louder and louder as Luke rubbed his back, hiding his face in the crook of the eldest boy’s neck, and Ashton tried to ignore that Luke let out a choked sob.

A few seconds later though, he sniffled and lifting his head up from his neck. “Ashton, it’s gonna be okay, don’t worry,” Luke cooed, trying to play it off like he didn’t just start crying a bit too (which, he totally did but no one was judging him). “Cal’s gonna trust you, he loves you too much to not do so.” Ashton still shook his head, eyes watering up like a waterfall and slicing down his cheeks. “We’re almost to the hospital anyway, you’ll be able to see him and even if he is mad at you -- _which he’s not, I promise_ \--” he added in quickly, “then you two can talk it out.”

Ashton mumbled out something small, his voice weak as he ducked his head, in turn hiding his face in the crook of Luke’s neck, quietly sobbing until all of his energy gave out, and he quickly fell asleep.

Luke just sighed and rubbed his back all of the way to the hospital.

* * *

 

As the three stepped inside, Ashton immediately hated it. He hated hospitals, had been in so many different ones multiple times, and it didn’t make him feel better to know that because of him, Calum was now in a hospital. “I-I don’t want to see him,” Ashton said, stopping his moving feet and keeping them planted on the floor. “D-Don’t make me see him, he’s gonna hate me for what I did, I don’t want to see him.”

“Come on, Ash, he’s not gonna hate you,” Michael said quietly, slipping his hand into his and Ashton still felt uncomfortable with the whole aura of the building. “I promise you. I broke Calum’s ankle once and he didn’t hate me afterwards.”

“I don’t want to know how you did that,” Luke mumbled, turning and talking to the lady at the desk.

“It was a trampoline accident, actually.” Michael snickered. “Landed on his ankle. I think I cried more than him.”

The eldest boy fought the urge to say _well I almost accidentally killed him_ , but he couldn’t move his tongue to voice it out loud. It had started raining on the car ride there and it seemed to match everyone’s mood as Luke talked to the receptionist, listening to her tell them they could go visit him -- and it also didn’t help Ashton’s mood when he had to lie to the lady, telling him that he was his boyfriend and that he needed to see him, because that was the only way they were getting back there. Apparently ‘ _we’re his bandmates_ ’ isn’t a reliable excuse anymore. But they were released to go back there and Ashton could feel his legs turning into lead the shorter the distance between them got.

“He’s on floor three,” Luke informed the other two and they made their quiet retreat to the elevators, pressing on the button to that level. Michael and Luke made small talk, and Ashton could tell that they kept looking at him, but the curly-haired boy kept digging his nails into his wrists and kept telling himself _don’t say a word, this is all your fault_.

“Y-You guys know that I was just trying to help him out, right?” Ashton mumbled as soon as the elevator doors opened, and the three stepped out. Michael and Luke both agreed, but that didn’t make the eldest boy feel any better. The room was even more bland than the lobby downstairs, and that just made Ashton’s mood worse. It wasn’t like the kid section of the hospital like the one at home, where he would take his siblings to whenever they were sick. This was a bland, medical-poster-covered-wall room, and fortunately they quickly headed back to the room number that Calum was in. As he took more and more steps toward where the Kiwi boy was waiting, resting, probably in pain, Ashton’s heart leapt into his throat. He felt horrible. This was all his fault. He was supposed to take care of Calum, not make him feel worse (or put him in the hospital). 

As soon as they knocked on the door and it opened by a doctor, Ashton couldn’t feel himself breathing anymore. He was taking short, quick breaths, his hand clenching down on Luke's. He only saw a glimpse of Calum’s pale hand, lying flat on the bed, and he backed up, running into the wall that ran parallel with the doorway. “I-I can’t do this, n-no, I can’t go in there, Mikey, L-Luke, don’t make me do it…” he pleaded, feeling like a child but he couldn’t help it. He couldn’t go in there. Calum would yell at him, tell him to fuck off and that would be that. He couldn’t risk it.

“Come on, Ashton, it’ll be okay.” Luke said confidently, and the doctor nodded her head. “See? Even she says so.”

“Everything will be okay,” the doctor said as she nodded her head, “you can see him if you want to, sweetie, he’s finally woken up.” The woman then gave a sweet smile, and even though Ashton wanted to melt into that smile, it was so inviting and he almost gave in, it wasn’t Calum’s smile and he was so sure he wouldn’t ever get to see his smile aimed at him ever again because of what he did to him. Michael just tugged on his arm, pulling him into the room and Ashton stumbled in, seeing the boy looking pale as ever with a mask over his nose and mouth. There was an IV placed in his arm, a piece of gauze and tape covering it and Ashton felt worse than he ever did before.

But all of that didn’t matter until Ashton saw Calum’s dark eyes looking at him, and the curly-haired boy couldn’t speak. He felt his heart break, his throat constricting as he saw the now very pale boy sitting there, dark circles around his eyes to match them. Michael and Luke came in behind him, going to sit down on the chairs when the doctor invited them too, but the purple-haired boy ended up sitting on his boyfriend’s lap instead.

“Hey, Calpal, how are you doing?” Luke asked from behind his boyfriend and Ashton watched Calum shrug. “Can he talk?” the blond asked the doctor and she nodded her head, carefully moving the air mask he had around his face off to the side, telling the boy if he needs it just to press it on his face.

“He technically should be alright, but just in case… That’s what you do,” she explained. “I’ll give you three some time alone with him.”

And with that, she left, and it was silent in the room except for the repetitive beeping from the machines that surrounded the Kiwi boy. “How are you feeling?” Michael asked and Luke pouted, telling him that he _already kinda sorta asked that question_ and the older boy just rolled his eyes, continuing to look at Calum. “So, how are you feeling, really? A shrug isn’t gonna work.”

“What if a shrug is all I feel?” the Kiwi boy responded quietly, his voice scratchy and it hurt Ashton to hear him like that. “I can’t remember anything. I called out to you, then the phone call, then black. And hurt. I feel hurt.” Ashton ducked his head, turning away from him and staring at some poster about vaccines instead, so the other boys couldn’t see him start to tear up again, because _fuck_ \-- he _had_ called out to them. They didn’t hear him when he needed it most and that hurt like a bitch.

Michael just mumbled something underneath his breath to Luke, something about how _his sentences didn’t flow right_ , or _they were just choppy_ and Ashton snapped his head toward him, muttering out, “it’s probably just the medicine he’s on,” and that definitely shut the boy up. “Apologize. Now.”

“Sorry, Cal,” he mumbled once again, looking at the boy on the bed and Ashton sighed, looking back at the vaccine poster.

“S’okay…” Calum’s voice was quiet, still, and it made Ashton’s heart hurt even more than it has all day. At least he was alive though, so that made him feel a little better, but it still sucked knowing that it was his fault to begin with. “A-Ashy?” he called out, and the eldest boy let out a little choked sob. “You haven't said something...”

 _It’s ‘anything’, Calum_ , Ashton thought in his head, but he didn’t dare say it out loud because the boy had already been through enough, _it’s ‘you haven't said anything’ but whatever_. “Because,” he said, still glancing at the posters and Luke made a small comment of _we’re gonna leave you two alone_ , and Ashton felt his nails digging into his wrists once more.

“L-Look at me?” he mumbled whenever the two other boys left. “Can I please see those pretty eyes?”

Ashton would’ve normally laughed at something that cheesy, something that romantic because Calum would normally say those things as a joke, regardless of whether he meant them or not, but Ashton couldn’t laugh and he ended up starting to cry again, because Calum sounded so fucking _helpless_ and it was his fault.

“Ashton,” Calum called again and Ashton finally turned around, tears running down his cheeks and he could barely make out the Kiwi boy on the bed through his teary eyes, but Calum’s voice was enough to actually make the boy go over to him, standing there awkwardly as he just cried in front of him. “Why are you crying?”

Ashton felt his hands tremble as he tried playing with his sleeves, tried digging his nails into his wrists again, anything to make him move. “I-I’m supposed to be the one taking care of you, and I got you medicine that you’re allergic to and it’s my job to look after you, but we were playing video games and we didn’t hear you and the medicine I got you made you almost die and it’s all my fault and--”

Calum hesitantly lifted up his arm, tugging on one of Ashton’s wrists, inspecting it. “You’re doing your nail thing again.”

“Because it’s--”

“Ashton, it’s not your fault…” Calum cooed, even if it sounded weird with his scratchy voice. “I’m fine, it’s not your fault,” he repeated, telling the boy to lay down next to him, and in a moment the eldest boy climbed into the hospital bed with him, avoiding any wires to make sure that Calum would be alright. The blond hid his head in Calum’s chest, sobbing even though he could feel the boy breathing rhythmically and even though that made him feel better, he still blamed himself. Calum wrapped his arms around him, assuring him multiple times that it wasn’t his fault, and Ashton didn’t think he’d ever start to believe that, no matter who he heard it from.

“I’m supposed to take care of you…”

“You did. You got medicine. Not your fault.” Calum quietly said, his left hand running through Ashton’s curls mindlessly. “You were trying to make me better.”

“But--”

“No buts. I love you.”

Hearing those words made Ashton melt, and he finally looked up at the Kiwi boy, a tiny smile forming on his lips, only because Calum was lazily smiling back at him. “I-I love you too. Are you mad at me?”

“Never could be. Never will,” and the sentence made Ashton so _fucking_ _happy_ to hear that, even if this whole incident was his fault.

Calum leaned in for a kiss and Ashton accepted it, leaning in and pressing his own lips against Calum’s, savoring the taste. They pulled away though as soon as someone awkwardly bumped noses. Even though that first kiss they shared was their first kiss as a couple and it wasn’t as perfect as Ashton thought it was going to be (and it wasn't necessarily in a perfect location), it still had a pretty good memory and the curly-haired boy would surely remember the moment for a lifetime.

They smiled at each other after they parted, and Calum even laughed a little, again saying the whole thing wasn’t Ashton’s fault to make him feel better before they started to kiss again. When he was feeling brave enough though, Calum starting to leave little sweet kisses in other spots as well, before saying that he loved him and Ashton murmured it back against the Kiwi boy’s lips when they kissed again.

Ashton just wished he could forget Michael and Luke coming in moments after they started kissing, saying that it was love at first sight.

That, he wish he could forget. Calum just simply ignored them, leaning back into kiss the other boy, smiling into the kiss whenever the eldest boy clutched onto the hospital robes, pulling him closer to him, so he wouldn’t slip away ever.

This time is the last time Calum would be out of his sight. He didn’t want to lose him.


	23. fly, ballerina [muke]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> and him flopping down on the air mattress unfortunately made physics to do its thing.
> 
> -
> 
> a prompt from kacey ✿

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “"Imagine your OTP having to share an air mattress for the night. Person A is already in bed and comfortable, and person B, very tired from the day, flops down on the other side, thus launching A into the air." i saw this on tumblr and immediately thought of you!! omg all i can picture is tiny!luke all snuggled in and cute and then big punk rock michael flopping down on the mattress and luke squealing and landing on michael and just asdfghj lots of muke cuteness with my short little lukey <33”  
> I SAW SMALL LITTLE TINY LUKE AND THOUGHT BALLET SO  
> ALSO SAYING THAT YOU THOUGHT OF ME IS SO SWEET HI HELLO xx  
> candy shop au candy shop au c a n d y s h o p a u oh my go d  
> ALSO   
> I CHANGED THE CHAPTER AMOUNT FROM 30 TO 40   
> BECAUSE I LOVE WRITING THESE AND I DONT WANT THEM TO END ( •̀ ⌔ •́ )✧

Luke hated being away from home. He hated being away from his mum and his family and his brothers, but he tried not to think about that as he cautiously looked around the black room, noticing how it was all covered up by posters and pictures of this other boy with black hair, who Luke knew to be Calum Hood.

Calum Hood was nice to him. He liked Calum Hood, and Luke also liked Calum’s boyfriend, Ashton (he didn’t really know Ashton’s last name, but he knew that Ashton was also in ballet, only he was older and so he didn’t get to talk to him much).

“You have a lot of posters,” he mumbled over to Michael, who was busy setting up an air mattress in the middle of the room. He was sleeping over at his friend’s house, and it was making the boy a little nervous as he carefully sat on his bed. Should he sit on his bed? He wasn’t too sure if Michael would like that. The blond just shook his head, laughing a bit at Luke’s statement and he wondered if he had said something wrong.

“Yeah, well, I like a lot of bands,” Michael replied, finishing setting up the air mattress and hooking it up to the machine, turning it on and Luke almost flinched at the noise. “You okay?” he asked and Luke nodded, trying to get his mind off of the annoying machine sound. He hated the noise more than he hated being away from home -- and he _hated_ being away from home with a burning passion. As soon as the air mattress was all blown up though, he turned off the machine and quickly closed up the hole, sealing it tight. He then huffed, looking up at the smaller blond boy. “Did I tell you you could sit on my bed?” the older boy arched an eyebrow and Luke quickly widened his eyes, leaping off of the bed and backing up toward the wall.

“ _I’msosorry_!” he shouted louder than he had expected and Michael just laid back, starting to laugh. “Why are you laughing at me?”

“Because! Dude, it’s okay, you can sit on my bed, I don't care,” the boy said as he sat up again, still chuckling from before. “Here, you want something to eat?” he asked, reaching over into his desk and pulling the drawer out. “I stole them from downstairs. Don’t worry, though, mum will never know. That's how punk rock I am.” Luke knew that Michael’s mum owned a little sweet candy shop, that it happened to be part of their apartment complex (the store was downstairs, on the ground floor) and Luke hoped to work there some day. But he was also pretty sure stealing wasn't punk rock. At all. “Unless, she actually takes inventory tonight. But, I mean, I’ll just admit it was me and then I’ll probably have to work the night shift tomorrow but that’s fine, too.”

Luke just shook his head, hesitantly sitting on the floor next to the older boy. Michael just rolled his eyes and popped a piece of dark chocolate into his mouth, and Luke couldn’t help but watch his every move. He was so enticing that it was embarrassing to think about and so Luke just looked away.

“Chocolate not really your thing, I’m assuming? What about sour gummy worms? Those are, like, the best.” Luke scrunched up his nose at the thought. “Wow. Someone doesn’t know how to have fun.”

“Mum doesn’t really allow me to eat much sweets.” Luke admitted lamely, and he turned to the older boy, his eyes growing wide. “But I do like chocolate! Just not dark chocolate.”

“I didn’t steal any of that for ya, sorry.” Michael grumbled, eating another piece of his own chocolate before standing up, walking next to the door and stopping, turning on his heel to face the blond. “We can go down and steal some for you, if you want?” There was a wicked smile on his face, and Luke hesitantly shook his head once more.

“No, I’m alright,” he said as he quickly moved to his air mattress, pulling his bag that he had brought with him closer to him. He grabbed a medium-sized penguin plushie, one that had a tutu on itself and Michael laughed and Luke pretended to not hear him as his cheeks burned. Okay, that might’ve been a bad thing to bring out already, but he couldn’t help it and he ducked his face down, hiding it in the fur of the stuffed animal.

“It’s cute,” Michael said, “just like you.”

Luke pretended he couldn’t hear him say that too.

Michael was quiet for a minute before he pointed to the penguin and asked, “how’s ballet anyway? Is it hard?”

“I suppose but I’ve been doing it all of my life so,” Luke answered quietly, laying down on his inflated mattress and sighed a bit.

The older boy shook his head, heading out of his room, muttering something about chocolate and Luke wished he could take it all back so Michael wouldn’t have to go through the trouble of getting-- _stealing_ , actually, how punk rock could Michael get?--him some chocolate. He stared up at the ceiling, looking as it was covered also with posters and he wondered how he got them up there by himself. Maybe he had Calum help. He was secretly glad that Calum was busy with Ashton, or whatever the reason he had said because then Luke would have Michael all by himself and even though Michael was totally different than him, he still couldn’t help but try and be perfect for him (but that was only because he liked him). Luke curled up into a ball, turning onto his side. He yawned.

He was getting tired, but he didn’t want to fall asleep yet. The sun had been down for only an hour and a half. But it was exhausting getting used to a place he hadn’t been before, and so whenever he found his eyelids closing, he didn’t stop them. Michael probably would throw him off the bed, or whatever, and that should’ve scared him since Michael is so much bigger than him, but it didn’t and he continued to keep his eyes shut, his breathing becoming a pattern.

He did however hear the soft click of the door, meaning that it was closed, but Luke didn’t want to find out who was just standing there. He was too tired (plus, he had practice earlier today, so his feet were starting to kill him) and he really shouldn’t have been surprised whenever he felt someone flop down next to him.

He was surprised however, when that person was Michael, and him flopping down on the air mattress unfortuantely made physics to do its thing and it caused Luke to spring up in the air, causing him to open his eyes immediately and scream louder than he intended too. He landed on his stomach, landing on the bigger idiot who was currently laughing at him, and he clutched onto him, his nails digging into the older boy's skin like Luke was some terrified kitten. And, to be completely honest, he probably was.

“You should’ve seen your face!” Michael yelled loudly, his eyes and nose scrunching up when he laughed and Luke pouted, puffing his cheeks out as he did, but he didn’t dare get off of the other boy (well, it didn’t help that Michael had his arms around him now). “It was so fucking funny, oh my god, I didn’t mean to do that but I’m glad I did.”

“Haha, thanks so much.” Luke said quietly, adding a bit of a glare in his eyes. “I’m glad me thinking I was going to end up in space was enough entertainment for you. Now tell me, why did you do that?”

“Because I’m punk rock, duh.”

Luke groaned and Michael pulled the boy closer, and they were so fucking close it made the ballerina’s heart speed up. “You’re not punk rock,” he deadpanned and Michael shook his head. “You’re not.”

“You still love me anyway.”

Luke blushed at the statement as he felt his heart flutter, but he took the initiative and placed a chaste kiss to the older boy’s lips. In a quick moment though, he pulled back, smiling for nothing and placing his head in the crook of Michael’s neck. “Yeah, I guess I do. Even though you launched me in the air.”

Michael just laughed. Luke knew that he would have to think this whole kissing thing through, but he was glad he had gotten close enough to him to actually do it. And with a yawn, he curled up on Michael, sighing at the feeling of the other boy wrapping his arms around his shoulders, and was thankful that Michael actually let him sleep.

And Luke was surprised to wake up the next day, Michael turned around from him and cuddling up with Mr. Penguin. That didn't stop Luke from leaning over and kissing the older boy's head. It also didn't stop him from taking a picture of Michael and Mr. Penguin cuddling and sending it to his mum, either.


	24. hip bumps and kisses [cashton]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Imagine your otp in an environment with collective showers without separating walls. As they both wash their hair at the same time, person A playfully bumps their hip into person B’s. Person B glances back and bumps back, a little harder. (from imagineyourotp.tumblr)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i wrote this bc two reasons 1) l e s b i a n s and 2) cashton
> 
> ok really three reasons 3) lesbians who happen to be cashton

Ashton was perfectly fine with showering with her teammates. Perfectly fine with it. Even if some of the locker rooms had no walls in between shower heads, the eighteen-year-old girl would still take showers in them and wasn’t ever really surprised if someone joined her or not.

Of course, some of the other girls weren’t really into that and so instead of just taking a shower, they would ride home in their own cars or whatever, and sometimes Ashton didn’t understand why because the girls would drive for at least two hours smelling like sweat and grass. She understood that some girls weren’t into it or some were insecure, but Ashton really tried never to stare at any of them whenever they did suck it up (or, woman up enough to do so, in which case Ashton was so _fucking_ proud of them) and took a shower with her whenever the showers had no separating walls.

But there would always be one girl who would join her, a sixteen year old girl, in the separating walls or not, and it always seemed to put a smile to her face. The girl’s name was an odd, boyish name but that was alright because hers was as well, and she had short, jet-black hair which would always stick up in some parts. She would always join Ashton in the showers and it always made her feel happier. They would play games with the water, or something along those lines, dicking around in the showers until it was probably time to hurry up and actually get dried off and ready to go home.

As Ashton looked around for the girl she had gotten so used to seeing (literally, they were their everything, they met on the team and since then, they’ve been inseparable) she saw the door open and she sighed whenever the girl with the short, black hair stepped inside and Ashton couldn’t help but smile.

“Hi Calum,” she greeted, rubbing shampoo in her hair as she turned, watching the girl roll her eyes and get undressed. “What’s wrong?”

“That score they had gotten twenty seconds until the game was over,” Calum mumbled, slipping her jersey over her head and dropping it to the floor. Ashton felt bad for staring, but she really couldn’t help it, but Calum had grown used to it and she had caught sight of the blond watching, and she arched an eyebrow. “Like what you see?” she asked whilst slipping her sports bra over her head, and Ashton had to actually turn around to avoid staring too long. It wasn’t unknown that Ashton had a crush on her, everyone had a crush on her, even if you didn’t want to admit it, but it didn’t stop Ashton from wondering if _she_ had a crush on _her_. She tried not to think about that too much, and instead nodded her head, rinsing the shampoo out of her hair.

“Yeah, that kinda sucked but it’s whatever. I just hope Coach isn’t mad at us,” Ashton mumbled after a moment, trying to keep her eyes and mind off of Calum’s body. “I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t be, though,”

Calum hummed and eventually joined the shower, sighing when she turned on her own shower head and winced when it came out as hot water. That was never a thing Ashton understood about Calum, why she took such cold showers whenever Ashton herself would take blistering hot ones. It was always a hassle using one shower whenever there were walls separating them (well that, and because of the fact that they had to be quiet so no one would realize they were sharing a shower whenever they didn’t need to) because they could never decide on a temperature that was right enough for them.

Ashton could feel Calum’s eyes on her and she didn’t know whether or not to hide herself or be proud that _Calum Hood_ was checking her out. She sighed and glanced toward her, arching an eyebrow. “What about you? Like what you see?” she repeated Calum’s sentence from earlier.

Calum smirked, fucking _smirked_ , and said, “well of course I do, baby,” and Ashton’s cheeks grew bright red and Calum crinkled up her nose, snorting into her hand before laughing louder than the other girl expected her to. “I also wish I was joking, but I’m not, you look really good.”

“O-Oh, well thanks, mate,” she mumbled, turning back to condition her long hair and Calum cleared her throat, starting to wash her own hair as well. “You’re the better looking one of both of us though.” Calum shook her head, turning and grabbing onto the other girl’s waist, which felt better than Ashton had thought it would.

“I may be good looking, but you’re gorgeous, Ash,” Calum said, poking the blond’s nose before turning back, washing the soap out of her hair. “Even with those scars on your wrists." Ashton touched onto her wrists, ducking her head. "I know you were going to bring them up, and I'm sorry I did, but I don’t want you to worry about them, so let’s stop talking about it, yeah? You’re beautiful,” and there was a smile on the younger girl’s face and Ashton couldn’t help but do the same, wanting to jump around and yell and shout that Calum just called her _beautiful_.

Calum laughed and jutted her hip out, hitting the other girl in the hip and Ashton looked up from staring at her feet, her cheeks still burning (though she tried to convince herself it was just because of the warm water). “What’d you do that for, Cally?” she asked, moving to hit her hip as well, accidentally doing it harder than Calum did and it almost knocked her over. “Oops!”

Calum just laughed again, and held onto the other girl and without a second thought the Kiwi girl pulled the older one closer to her, her hands on her hips.

“I didn’t mean to almost knock you over,” Ashton said, apologizing afterwards, but was soon cut off by the feeling of Calum pressing her body against hers and _ugh_ , why did she do this to her? The younger girl just shook her head.

“No need to apologize,” she said, leaning in for a kiss and Ashton’s breath caught in her throat as she reached up, wrapping her arms around Calum’s neck and pressed her lips against hers. The kiss only lasted for a short moment, they pulled away and Calum went right back to what she was doing and Ashton stared down at her feet, feeling Calum’s hands on her hips and she smiled over at the other girl.

“That was our first kiss,” Ashton said quietly and Calum nodded her head, smiling. "It was nice."

"Jesus, Ash, I kiss you and you say it's _nice_?" Calum arched an eyebrow and Ashton laughed, soon making the other girl laugh, too. "I'm just joking. It was nice. I almost want to do it again, as cliché as that sounds."

"Then I'm going to give you an equally cliché answer and say go ahead then, do it." Ashton mumbled, looking at the girl with the smile on her face, one that was radiant enough to make probably fucking daisies grow. Calum nodded her head, leaned in and pressed a kiss to her lips, placing her hands on the older girl's hips and pulled her closer to her.

Calum was the first to pull away and she muttered out, "another true cheesy thing: I've wanted to do that for ages."

Ashton bit back the retort of _I wanted you to do it for ages_ , and ducked her head. "Glad you finally did it. I really like you a lot."

"I like you too." Calum mumbled, pressing another kiss to the girl's lips. "It'll be fun explaining to Luke and Mikey that we had our first kiss in a shower. They'll be so confused."

Ashton laughed and kissed Calum's nose, only for the other to do it back. And with another hip bump and a kiss, the younger girl went back to washing up her body, and Ashton couldn't help but sneak a peek as she washed her own body.

She still couldn't believe Calum liked her back, let alone kissed her in the shower. Naked.

More butterflies flew in her stomach as she thought of the feeling of Calum's soft lips on her own, and _oh_ , she couldn't wait to kiss her again.

Which, she planned on doing forever.


	25. m/f/n/p [muke]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the moment Michael knew that she wanted to wear a skirt for the day was the day she _knew_ that she was going to get made fun of by her other three friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> btw the letters for the title mean male/female/neutrois/polygender, i didnt know what to name it so i just kinda went with it idk  
> also michael’s pronouns in this change with how he/she are feeling, sometimes they when theyre feeling polygender/neutrois.  
> AND I KINDA WANNA WRITE A FIC ABOUT THIS TOO bECAUSE YES LIKE HAVE MICHAEL CHANGE THE PRONOUNS AND GENDER EVERY FEW DAYS AND STUFF

The moment Michael knew that she wanted to wear a skirt for the day was the day she _knew_ that she was going to get made fun of by her other three friends. She hadn’t really come out as genderfluid yet to anyone, it was hard to since it's hard explaining that sometimes you feel like a girl (or nothing at all, or a mixture of both boy and girl) when really you were born a boy, and she had been trying to hide it from her friends, only wearing skirts as limited as possible or when the three left or whenever Michael was alone. Sometimes she didn't feel like even being anything, or a mixture of things too, but this time it was definitely a skirt day.

It was a hot day -- that was usual for Australia -- and so why wouldn't she wear a skirt? She just felt like wearing one. She felt like a girl. Girls wear skirts.

And that wasn't good, because today was also the day she was hanging out with her three friends (well, two friends and boyfriend), who didn't know anything about her situation. She figured they had a clue (because, wearing panties to bed with Luke was probably more than just a show off for her boyfriend) but she knew they didn't fully know or comprehend what was going on. She had tried to hide it so well and it wasn't going to work because she wanted so desperately for the three to just _know_ already so Michael didn't have to hide it, but it was because of the fact that she didn't want to tell them that was blocking her from ever having the three know or find out.

Michael sighed, getting out of her bed and walking over to her closet, contemplating for a short moment to just wear pants and get over it, but she didn't _want_ to wear pants. She wanted to look pretty. She wanted to wear a skirt and a cute shirt to go along with it, cute stockings with bows and heels and that was what she wanted to wear. Michael's hands shook as she dug through her closet, trying to find those items that she owned, and she smiled once they did find them.

The shirt was a cute pink loose fitting short sleeved shirt, one that had the word _j'adore_ written on it in silvery cursive letters that would go perfect with her new silver-hair. The skirt was just a black skater skirt, one of those high waisted ones, and she slipped out of their pajamas, putting on deodorant, slipping into some panties before throwing the shirt over her head and then putting on the skirt, tucking a bit of the shirt into the black skirt.

She then grabbed the stockings with silver bows on them and slipped them on, since she figured, why not go all out? They were already going to find out today.

Michael couldn't help but smile as the stockings reached up to her thighs and the bows looked so clean and pretty and Michael also couldn't help but twirl a little and smile to herself because she felt so _fucking pretty_ and she tried not to think of what her friends would say when the three came to pick her up. Would they make her change? She hoped not, she was really starting to like this outfit. Michael shrugged, grabbing the combat boots and putting them on, lacing and tying them up before the silver-haired girl turned, grabbing her phone and make-up bag. She still had about twenty minutes left before the three came, and so Michael raced to the bathroom, brushing her teeth first before doing anything else. She brushed their hair afterwards, making it stick up in random places like always.

Michael sighed, looking at her makeup bag. She could probably only do her face and eyes, maybe only filling in her eyebrows a bit before using a thin line of eyeliner and mascara, since she was a bit tired and it was nine AM on a Saturday. But she would definitely have to use concealer. She was just grateful that she shaved her face yesterday, so adding makeup wouldn't be as much as a hassle because she did not want to deal with it.

After covering her face in concealer and foundation, covering up the coat with some powder, Michael just decided to stick with her plan and only fill in her eyebrows and use eyeliner and mascara. But as time went on, filling in her eyebrows, the silver-haired girl thought about eyeshadow, and now she was _really_ starting to get excited. Even if it scared her to death.

Besides poking her eye once with the mascara wand, Michael had to admit she was doing pretty well. She had done one thin line of eyeliner on the top lid (she didn't feel like doing wings) and used a light creamy skin color for the eyelids, and had used mascara on the top lashes as well. She then turned, moving to step on top of the toilet, looking at herself in the mirror, and Michael couldn't help but crack a smile.

She looked so pretty.

She got off of the toilet, put lip gloss on her lips for an added measure and checked the time; five minutes until the three were supposed to arrive, and Michael quickly headed into her room again. She put in her piercings, sprayed girly perfume over her body, especially on her wrists and neck, and grabbed a purse from her closet to put her phone and wallet into. She wanted to add a bow to her hair, but she decided against it and heard the doorbell ring, and she could hear her mother answer the door. _Oh great_.

"Michael's just upstairs," her mother said and Michael could feel her heart beat start to quicken as she heard the three come up the stairs. _What if Luke didn't like it_? That would hurt worse than if Ashton or Calum didn't like it. This was a mistake, now she really wanted to smear the makeup off and just put on some skinnies and a baggy t-shirt, because what _if_ Luke didn't like it? What would she do? She couldn't stop herself from feeling like that, it wasn't anything that could be changed.

There was a knock on the door and Michael yelped, instantly hearing Luke's voice say, "Mikey? You alright?"

"Yes, I'll meet you downstairs," came the quick reply and she stared at her reflection in her phone, deciding that she wasn't going to get dressed into something different.

It was killing her not to have them know.

"Wait, no, I'm ready," she said, heading over to her closed bedroom door, shouldering her purse nervously. She sighed, taking one last deep breath and she opened up the door. "I'm ready."

She watched as the boys looked at her and she ended up staring at her feet, her hands shaking. When they hadn't said anything, her breaths grew shorter and her heartbeat quickened.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly, hating herself for trying to apologize for being herself. Ashton shook his head, immediately stepping past Luke and Calum and grabbing onto her hands.

"No, no, don't be sorry, Mikey, you look so pretty!" Ashton said, smiling at the girl and she looked at him, a bit of a smile growing on her face too.

"Really?" She asked, fighting the urge to cry because Luke hadn't said _anything_ about it yet, but she was glad Ashton had.

"Yes, really, Mike," Calum then said and Michael looked at Luke, expecting him to say something, _anything_ , and he only agreed to what Calum said, grabbing onto her hand and pulling her out of her room. Calum and Ashton followed along after them, and Michael's hands shook. "Should we give you two some time alone?" Calum mumbled as they said goodbye to Michael's mother, heading outside to Ashton's car.

Before Michael could say anything, Luke nodded his head and that made Michael feel even worse about the situation. Calum and Ashton got into the car, Calum getting in the driver's seat, which was weird to Michael but she let it go as she turned to Luke, not wanting to look at him but finding herself doing so.

"Are you mad?" Michael said after a moment, playing with the ends of her skirt and Luke shook his head. "Why haven't you said anything about this instead of causing me to freak out and to be honest, I'm still freaking out."

"I'm just trying to figure this out in my head, I didn't ever mean for you to freak out about it... I'm just trying to understand. I'll get it eventually, but I want you to know that I won't leave, ever, you don't have to freak out about it anymore," Luke admitted quietly, "you do look very pretty though. I like the bows."

Michael ducked her head, laughing nervously as she rubbed her arm. "Thanks..."

"Why didn't you tell me about this?" the blond asked. There it was. How was she supposed to tell him and explain it to him when she barely had a clue?

"I didn't think you would like me anymore..." she mumbled, looking at the cement driveway beneath her feet. "It's just sometimes I feel like a boy, sometimes a girl, sometimes both, sometimes... None."

"Oh..." Luke rubbed the back of his neck before pausing, looking at the other with an arched eyebrow. "Wait, you thought that I wouldn't like you anymore? Mikey, that's not how that works. I still like you. I'll always love you, honey." Michael smiled at the honey part, even though it made her seem like she was a child, but Luke pushed the thought away by kissing her, before pulling away and mumbling out, "your lipstick tastes good."

"Thank you," Michael grinned, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"And you do look good, I like it a lot." Luke said and she said thanks again, ducking her head, feeling Luke kiss her head.

Calum interrupted their moment by honking the horn, startling both of them and he rolled down the window, saying "hurry up, lovebirds."

Luke and Michael both flipped him off.

"So what pronouns should I use?" Luke asked quietly, rubbing the small of her back as they turned, heading into the car.

Michael shrugged. "I'll let you know since it varies. Sorry about that." she apologized and Luke shook his head, looking at her with such admiration that it actually made the girl look away from him. "Right now I'm a girl..." she mumbled.

"Yes, yes you are. So 'she'?" He asked and Michael nodded her head, getting into the car along with Luke. "Alright then. She it is. Just let me know when it changes or you want me to call you something different." Michael agreed, looking out the window as Calum backed out of the driveway, and she smiled to herself, feeling Luke grab for her hand, and she entwined their fingers together.

She was lucky to have him.

She was _really_ lucky to have all three of them.


	26. killing cockroaches [cashton]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> all the Kiwi boy could say was, “why’d you kill it with a dildo?” over and over again.  
> “It was just the nearest thing I found, really.” Ashton replied.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fxckmuke asked me to write her a oneshot that basically consists of calum recording a video game session and ashton killing a cockroach with a dildo and then telling everyone about it :'D  
> also watch out for ashton wearing panties sorry not sorry

The moment Calum set up the video camera on his computer meant that he meant business and he was going to play a game with his two other friends and his boyfriend. He was going to do this, through and through, and that was how it was going to go down and if anyone wanted to go against it, they could _suck it_. Calum had been inactive from his Youtube channel for two months and people weren’t having it, and so naturally _he_ wasn’t having it either.

He had called the two others over, resting in his computer chair after setting up the microphone and camera on his computer. He glanced over at his boyfriend, arching an eyebrow when he saw the boy laying on the couch with his back turned to him, wearing only just black panties and one of Calum’s sweaters, glancing at his phone and scrolling through Twitter.

And, maybe, just _maybe_ , Calum couldn’t help but be completely mesmerized by how Ashton had curves running down his body and how he purposely pointed his toes together, making him look fucking hotter than Calum ever thought was possible. The Kiwi boy sighed, deciding enough was enough and he got up out of his chair, walking over to him and plopping down on him without another word. Ashton just groaned, looking up from his phone, and Calum laughed, placing his hands on his hips.

“Are you just gonna ignore me and stay in your panties all day or are you gonna get dressed so Luke and Mikey don’t stare at you and make me feel jealous?” Calum asked, arching an eyebrow playfully at him and Ashton rolled his eyes, setting his phone down on the small table they had beside the couch.

“How long is it until the two come over anyway? Like, thirty minutes or something?” the eldest asked and Calum nodded his head, pressing his chest against Ashton’s back, feeling every bit and curve of him beneath him...and he wasn’t going to lie and say it didn’t feel nice. “Mm, we should try and do something before they come.”

“And, what should that be?” Calum asked, hiding his face into the crook of Ashton’s neck, before shifting, lifting his head up and kissing the older boy's spine. He ignored how the boy beneath him said _you know what it means_ , and Calum couldn’t help but feel a little excited about the thought. Well, the blond was sitting there, sitting like that and completely ignoring him looking like that, and it wasn’t fair. At all. So naturally, of course Calum wanted to tease him back. “Mm, say it.”

“No, I’m not gonna say it.”

Calum hummed. “Fine, I’ll be nice, I won’t make you say it. Maybe,” he said, climbing off the boy and grabbing onto his hands, leading him into the bedroom. He then paused, letting go of the boy to only grab at his hips, harsher than he expected. Ashton didn't react except for when he crossed his arms, impatient with Calum's lack of walking toward their bed. “Hmm, actually, no. Say it.”

Ashton rolled his eyes, “Oh, just fuck me already.”

“Ah, so loving. I plan on it.”

* * *

Twenty three minutes later, the two reappeared out of the bedroom, just in time to fix their hair and clothes (Calum sadly made Ashton put on pants, but Ashton promised he wasn’t taking off the panties -- the other tried not to think about it too much) and before he knew it, Calum was answering the door because the fuckers came earlier than thirty minutes because they were apparently _planning on being early_.

“Why don’t you two ever come on time? It’s either a few minutes before or three hours late, there’s no fucking in between.” Calum muttered and Michael rolled his eyes, tugging the taller blond along behind him and Ashton waved from the couch, and Calum watched out of the corner of his eye as Luke sat down next to him. Michael however made everything better by heading straight for the boy’s kitchen, yelling out loudly something about pizza and alcohol, and Calum yelled back, “Pizza’s in the fridge, along with the alcohol.”

“You’re not cooking the pizza yet?” Michael asked incredulously, stepping into sight again and he made a hand gesture, one that Calum knew as _what the fuck Calum?_ and Calum shrugged his shoulders lazily.

“I was busy.” Calum admitted sheepishly, stealing a glance and a snicker from the older blond, and he turned his attention back to the silver-haired boy.

“You coulda had Ashton do it!” Michael snapped and Calum’s eyes connected with Michael’s.

“Uh, he was busy too.” Calum said with a smirk and he watched as Michael’s eyes narrowed. “Yep. Definitely busy too--”

“Busy doing what?” Michael asked, staring at the boy like he was staring into his soul and it made the other step back involuntarily, because _wow, chill, Clifford_.

“Just put the damn pizza in the oven, Michael,” Calum said, heading back to his computer chair and plopping down in it, trying not to stare at his boyfriend because Luke was there, and even though he didn’t mean to, he thought of how the boy looked underneath him and fuck, he turned his chair forward instead. He heard Ashton let out a sigh and the Kiwi boy stared at the screen as he heard Ashton continuing to talk with Luke.

Maybe it was because he was a bit jealous of Luke, but Luke had Michael (who was currently shouting profanities at the pizza box -- Calum thought he would’ve known how to make a fucking pizza) and Calum had his own boy.

But he still couldn’t help that Luke was sitting there.

Next to him.

So. Close. To. Him.

Calum shook his head.

This was too much. He was getting worked up over nothing. Ashton was his and only his and Ashton knew that, he had to know that. The black-haired boy looked toward Luke, smiling at him and letting him know that he was friendly.

“So are we gonna play Slenderman or what?” Calum asked and he could hear something make a bumping sound from the kitchen, and Luke rolled his pretty blue eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, we’re gonna play it,” Luke said calmly, even though Calum knew that he was going to scream the loudest of all. Well, maybe. Michael would be the one screaming the loudest. That was how he was whenever the four played Five Nights at Freddy’s, and the poor punk had to leave the room because he was so frightened. Calum laughed a little at the memory as Luke pulled a chair up next to the nineteen-year old. Ashton still sat on the couch, and had to take some convincing to get him to join (Calum’s pouting always worked). The eldest pulled up a chair, nudging it in between Luke and Calum, leaving the right side of Calum for Michael, if and whenever he returned from the kitchen.

Which was sooner than Calum thought, because the silver-haired boy came out, a big bottle of blue liquid in his hand. Calum tried to ignore the size of the bottle as he turned on the microphone and the video camera, seeing themselves pop up on the screen. “Pizza’s in the oven, finally,” he hissed out the words, directing them toward Calum, who simply just shrugged them off. Michael snickered, attempting to sit on Luke’s lap, but was redirected by Calum, who then turned back and started recording, clicking on the little icon for Slenderman, waiting for it to load. When Michael found the seat that actually belonged to him, he pouted instead, plopping down in the chair and setting the bottle of UV vodka down on the desk. Calum rolled his eyes, ignoring whenever Michael did it to mock him.

“It’s to make sure you actually focus on the game instead of trying to have you” -- he turned his attention to the blond beside him -- “get into his pants.” Calum then focused on the bright screen in front of him. “That’s why I did it. And that’s why Ashton’s all the way behind me.” He pointed blindly to the boy behind him, and Ashton appeared in the corner of the screen, on the video, waving to the camera.

“I wasn’t gonna fuck him on camera,” Calum didn’t have to know which one of the two said that, but he figured it was Michael and so he ignored it, even ignoring when the silver-haired boy asked for someone to pay attention for the oven, making sure not to burn the house down. Ashton replied with the fact that he would do it. Calum clicked on the play button for the video game, snickering when Michael already started to drink from the cute, blue bottle.

“You’re weak,” Luke grumbled, staring at the screen intently, watching without taking his eyes off the screen. “Save the vodka for later.”

“Don’t tell me how to live my life, Hemmings.” Michael grumbled, taking a swig and Calum scrunched his nose up at the thought of the smell.

“Maybe you should get a shot glass instead.” Ashton advised, getting up already and ignoring the look Michael gave him, and the blond took the bottle from him, heading back into the kitchen. Michael reluctantly told Calum to go right toward the trees to get his mind off of the loss of his alcohol, and the Kiwi boy rolled his eyes, going in the direction of the trees (but which tree in particular?) and starting to yell whenever the static noise began to appear. He turned the other way, holding shift and running faster, away from Slenderman. He glared over at Michael, who put his hands up in defense, mumbling out how he didn’t know he was going to be there. Calum ignored him.

Luke muttered something about there being a page on a tube in the forest, and Calum turned the corner, saying, “well at least someone pays attention,” and heading toward it, grabbing the piece of paper. Luke beamed, as if the compliment truly made him happy, and Calum couldn’t help but smile along. Well, that was, until he heard a scream (that didn’t come from the two next to him, and it certainly didn’t come from him) before he heard a sharp thud, and he looked over his shoulder, seeing that Ashton wasn’t in the chair behind him.

“Ashton!” Calum yelled, smirking at the wide-eyes he received from the others, “you almost gave me a heart attack! Where are you at?” He saw Ashton stepping out of their bedroom, an embarrassed look on his face as he walked closer to them, sitting down in the seat behind them like he didn’t just fucking scream bloody murder and hit the wall. “What the fuck was that all about?”

Ashton gestured with his eyes toward the camera before shaking his head. “Nothing.” He sat back down quietly, pulling out his phone. “I had just went in there and tried to grab my phone charger.”

“But… You don’t have your phone charger?” Michael asked, furrowing his eyebrows together. Ashton laughed. “ _Oh-kay_ , someone must’ve time travelled to Crazytown.”

The sudden static noise pulled the four back into what was happening on Calum’s screen and in one aggressive scream, Calum placed his forehead on his keyboard after pausing the game. “Fuck.” Calum could tell that Michael was laughing at his reaction, but he really didn’t care. He was more worried about Ashton than anything else. “Alright, Irwin, speak. What made you scream?”

And, with a shrug, Ashton muttered out, “I killed a cockroach,” and Michael hummed in agreement, saying that he would scream too if he saw a cockroach in his bedroom, “but, I grabbed the first thing I saw and…” the eldest blond trailed off, looking straight at Calum, who had turned back to look at him. “Yeah, I killed a cockroach with the dildo Calum got me.”

The room busted into a laughing fit between Michael and Luke, but Calum just stared straight ahead, staring at his computer with a blank expression on his face.

A few minutes had passed and Luke had gone up to get the pizza out of the oven, thank God he remembered, but Calum could still hear him laughing even from there. Michael was laughing as well, making snide comments and Calum almost wanted to _end_ him, but he didn’t and all the Kiwi boy could say was, “why’d you kill it with a dildo?” over and over again. Which, hadn’t really made the whole laughing thing die down, but it wasn’t like Calum expected it to when he had asked that.

“It was just the nearest thing I found, really.” Ashton replied, shrugging a shoulder again, looking off to the side before down at his phone.

Calum feigned offense, placing a hand on his heart. “I bought that for me to pleasure you, not to kill cockroaches!”

Michael laughed even harder, almost falling off his chair and Ashton bit his lip instead of saying anything about the boy in the kitchen, who the three had heard laughing, and there was a loud thud and Calum couldn’t tell if Luke had hit something or had hit the floor from cackling too much.

“I’m gonna tweet that,” Ashton said, opening up his Twitter app and Calum sighed, pausing the recording and turning the microphone off, and he looked over and Michael had tears in his eyes for laughing so hard.

“I’m just picturing that poor fucking cockroach getting smashed with a huge-ass dildo, I’m sorry, Calpal, but I guess I know what you two aren't doin' tonight!--” Michael gasped for air, laughing like an idiot.

Calum sighed, said, “I’m finding you a new dildo, Irwin, one that hopefully you won’t kill a cockroach with!” and grabbed his phone, making a new reminder to shop for dildos with Ashton later on.

“I’m tweeting that as well.”

Well. So much for playing a game and uploading it to Youtube.


	27. one mean thing [muke]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : name one mean thing i have done or said ever  
> ✿ **penguinsnLukey** : u convinced me eggs werent real  
> -  
> or the oneshot where lukey lists off mean things michael’s done because he’s mad at him >n

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> from a tumblr post that i cant seem to find atm  
> oh hahaah here it is http://leothequeenn.tumblr.com/post/113161066588  
> -  
> i wrote this because i apparently cant seem to write and be stressed at the same time so here. also i will have a muke request up soon after the cashton one that i got

**raiinbowMiikey [RM] _has logged in at 5:09 AM_.**

**penguinsnLukey [PL] _has logged in at 5:13 AM_.**

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : AND SO HE LIVES

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : no literally like calum thought you like

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : died

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : WE HAVENT SEEN YOU IN TWO WEEKS

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : OR HEARD FROM YOU

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : IN TWO WEEKS

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : hello

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : ..........

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : luke?

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : DID YOU DIE AGAIN

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : GODDAMN HEMMINGS THATS INCREDIBLE

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : YOURE DEAD ~*AGAIN*~

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : IM NOT DEAD

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : (youre so dead)

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : YOURE A ZOMBIE

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : omg

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : ON THE FLOOR

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : IM JUST A ZOMBIE

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : WHO I AM

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : IS NOT WHO I WANNA BE

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : are u singing ke$ha

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : oh my god

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : you are

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : its 5am and youre singing kesha

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : WELL WE HAVENT HEARD FROM YOU IN TWO WEEKS MISTER

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : actually thats not true. i talked to calum and ashton all throughout the week calum's just being over dramatic and saying that i died whenever i havent answered him from last night

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : and i argued with you at midnight last night

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : er

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : THIS MORNING

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : whatever

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : you knew what i meant

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : well i wasnt COUNTING that cause that sucked and idk why you’re still mad at me

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : because i kno you are still mad @ me

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : dickbutt

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : you know maybe thats why i am mad at u

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : OK

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : FINE

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : you called me a dick butt i mean

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : of course im still mad at u

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : *dickbutt

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : theres no space between the 2 words

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : piss off

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : im still v mad at you

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : go cry 2 ur mum about ur anger with me then

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : SINCE YOURE WITH HER >8(

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : not my fault she wanted a vacaaaayy >8D

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : dickbutt

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : goddammit

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : i dont have a dick in my butt atm

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : and when im comin home im givin it to u no exceptions

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : mmk

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : we’ll see how that goes

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : sinCE YOURE STILL MAD AT ME

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : o(-`д´- ｡)

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : ASSHOLE

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : using cute emoticons will not make me forgive you any sooner

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : ヾ( ･`⌓´･)ﾉﾞ the fucks ur deal bro

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : aww

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : ok that one’s kinda cute

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : THEYRE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE CUTE TO YOU

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : THEN DONT USE THE CUTE ONES

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : FINE

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : 凸ಠ益ಠ)凸

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : FUCK YOU

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : oh my god

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : 凸ಠ益ಠ)凸

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : see look michael i can do it too

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : dONT DO THAT

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : I DO WHAT I WANT IM PUNK ROCK

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : DONT

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : ( ｰ̀εｰ́ )

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : omg hang on

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : ʕ͙•̫͑͡•ʔͦʕͮ•̫ͤ͡ •ʔ͙

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : AWW THEY LOOK LIKE TOAST♥

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : UUGHGHHGHHHHGHGHG

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : OK

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : ONE

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : DONT USE MY QUOTE

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : ITS MY QUOTE I SAID IT

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : thats plagiarism i could report u for that ok

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : as the ever-great asshole declared, “i do what i want, i’m punk rock” and even that just showed how much of an asshole he was, i decided to use it for my essay to explain why i could use this emoticon: 凸ಠ益ಠ)凸 to show that i could indeed do it too because i am punk rock and can do what i want (Clifford, pg 19).

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : THATS NOT HOW U SOURCE THINGS IN PAPERS IDIOT

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : (Clifford 19). DUMB NUT

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : also, u have a shit sentence. nice job

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : SHUT UP

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : :( ok

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : what was i doing before this

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : OH RIGHT

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : OK

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : TWO

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : STOP

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : USING

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : THE

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : EMOTICONS

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : THEYRE MINE

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : im pretty sure they’re all open for the world to see and use thnk u ver much (T⌓T)

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : see maybe thats why im mad at you. its bc you are so mean to me for no reason

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : NAME ONE MEAN THING I HAVE DONE OR SAID EVER

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : BESIDES THIS BC EMOTICONS ARE MINE

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : “☆ raiinbowMiikey: THATS NOT HOW U SOURCE THINGS IN PAPERS IDIOT” :/

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : ok. fine.

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : besides that

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : BC I WAS JSUT TELLING YOU THATS NOT HOW YOU SORUCE THINGS

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : pls ignore the spelling mistakes

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : thats not how you spell just and source

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : DIIIIIIIICCCCCCK

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : | ￣～￣|o

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : 2 fab 4 u

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : ok now who’s being mean hmm

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : ok but seriously

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : what was the question again?

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : name one mean thing i have done or said ever

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : …..

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : …..

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : luke?

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : sh im thinking. theres a lot of things

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : hush

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : just say one pls

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : name one mean thing i have done or said ever

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : u convinced me eggs weren’t real

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : …..

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : i did wat

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : i convinced you eggs werent real????

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT. OUT OF ALL THE THINGS YOU PICK WHEN I CONVINCED YOU EGGS WERENT REAL (which i dont even remember tbh)

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : i dont??????

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : I DONT REMEMBER TELLING YOU EGGS WERENT REAL???? WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN???

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : it was like 3 months ago u egg lolol

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : but yeah we were like both sleep deprived and drunk

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : or i was like

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : REALLY SLEEP DEPRIVED AND DRUNK

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : and we were still kinda drunk from the night thx to calcium

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : calcium

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : yes

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : ....ok?

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : anyway and well you really werent drunk and sleep deprived but still kinda (cause you had a conversation with calums dog for no reason?? you were literally just talking to his dog about my socks)

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : i thought that said dong for a second

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : and i was about to be like woooah wow

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : MIKEY

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : sorry

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : ANYWAY

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : and yeah i remember we were both in calums room and you were sitting there next to me telling me that eggs werent real

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : and that they were just “fragments of our tastebud’s imagination to make up for the lack of the chicken’s baby”

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : calum recorded this

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : and i totally stared back at you like i witnessed the creation of the universe being made

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : because sleep deprived @ 3am me totally fucking believed

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : that eggs

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : werent real

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : because michael clifford

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : fucking told me

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : that eggs

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : werent

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : fucking

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : real

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : and thats why it is one of the most mean things that i could remember that you’ve done to me in my entire life because you KNEW what you were doing i think

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : bc then you said that we were “having eggs for breakfast in the morning” and i started freaking out and staring at you going “michael….theRE ARENT ANY EGGS HOW CAN WE MAKE THEM AND EAT THEM”

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : and that sir

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : is why

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : i hate you

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : IM ALUGHNiNG SO h ARDC WHA THT EHFICK I DONT EVEN REMMEBER THIS?????

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : I’LL HAVE TO HAVE CALUM SEND ME THE VIDEO

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : BECAUSE I DONT REMEMBER THIS

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : AT ALL

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : BUT IM LAUIGHIGN SO HARD

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : AND THAT IS ONE MEAN THING YOU’VE DONE OR SAID EVER

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : AND NOW I CANT DECIDE IF IM EVEN MORE MAD AT YOU NOW

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : OR IF IM DISAPPOINTED IN MYSELF FOR BELIEVING YOU BACK THEN

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : IM GONNA ASK CALUM FOR THE VIDEO

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : UHGHGHGHHG

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : IM STILL MAD AT YOU

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : i mean

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : you asked for a mean thing AND I GAVE YOU A MEAN THING

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : IM GLAD YOURE FINDING THIS SO FUNNY MICHAEL GORDON CLIFFORD

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : I DIDNT LIKE TRUST YOU FOR A WEEK AND A HALF AFTERWARDS

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : I ALMOST EGGED YOUR HOUSE AND HUNG A BANNER UP SAYING “EGGS ARE REAL DICKFACE”

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : I ALMOST MADE A SIGN TO PUT ON YOUR FUCKING HOUSE

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : SAYING THAT “EGGS ARE REAL”

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : BC IM A DUMBASS

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : AND THOUGHT IT WAS A GOOD IDEA TO STAY UP WITH YOU UNTIL 3 AM

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : THERE ARE TEARS GOING DOWN MY FACE THAT IS THE FUNNIEST THING IVE EVER DONE CALUM SENT ME THE FUCKIGN VIDEO IM ALUGHING SO HARD

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : im leaving

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : im still mad @ u bye forever

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : LUKEY IM SORRY I CONVINCED YOU EGGS WERENT REAL

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : im sorry i cant think about it without laughing oh my god

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : EGGS ARENT REAL APPARENTLY

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : BYE

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : ALSO

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : PS

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : MICHAEL GORDON CLIFFORD SUCKS EGGS

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : NO I DONT THEY ARENT REAL

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : …...LUJKE

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : LUKE*

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : lukE???

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : lukeeyyy nooooo coME BACK

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : im sorry

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : >8(

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : im cri

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : throws an egg at u

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : OUCH

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : …

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : ((ily))

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : >8D

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : so youre not mad at me anymore? i dont even remember what you were mad about

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : doesnt matter

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : also

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : maybe. i havent decided yet

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : >8(

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : （*＾3＾）/～♡

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : ((ily))

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : i really gotta go now tho ( ˘͈ ᵕ ˘͈♡)˚๐*˟ ♡

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : …

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : ((mikeyyyy))

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : ((...goddamnit say it back))

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : …..

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : ((ily2))

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : <3 ღƪ(ˆ◡ˆ)ʃ♡ƪ(ˆ◡ˆ)ʃ♪ - thats us :D

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : nerd

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : okay okay bye <3

☆ **raiinbowMiikey** : bye loser ily

✿ **penguinsnLukey** : ily2

**penguinsnLukey [PL] _has logged out at 6:01 AM_.**


	28. you're wrapped around his pretty little finger [cashton]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I want to quit,” Calum admitted when Ashton walked into the room and he could see a glimmer of delight shine in the boy’s eyes. Michael’s, not so much. “I want to quit smoking.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> btw school sucks  
> and also its funny how mikey says ‘little finger’ like no ashtons pinky is probably longer than my middle finger tbh

Ashton’s hands trembled as he walked into the house, the big, old house with ugly curtains covering the walls and a couch that reeked of pizza, and he turned, entering the long hallway and took a right, heading down into the basement where he knew Calum would be at. It was easy to pick up the smell, nonetheless, and so even if he didn’t know where he was going, he still would be able to tell. The smell made the nurse crinkle up his nose, but he still headed down into the basement, automatically detecting the white-haired boy leaning up against the couch they had down there, sitting there with a cigarette loosely dangling in his mouth.

Calum was sitting next to him, laughing about something and blowing smoke out of his mouth until he realized that Ashton was standing there in the doorway, and he looked over his shoulder, his eyes widened. “A-Ashton!” Calum exclaimed, shocked that he was actually here and actually knew about it, but it wasn’t like Ashton didn’t know Calum smoked, even if he had tried to sneakily get him to quit multiple times (“hey, you know that a smoker died from lung cancer today” apparently wasn’t as effective as Ashton thought it would be, even if no smoker that he knew of had died that day). Nothing seemed to work and Ashton was finally getting so fucking fed up with it and so he decided to see what was so addicting about them anyway.

“Save your breath, you’ll need it when your lungs give out at twenty-five,” the curly-haired boy huffed, coughing a bit as the smoke started to sting his nostrils. “Seriously, Michael, don’t you open up a goddamn window in this place? You could literally die from this.” Michael just rolled his eyes, or at least that was what Ashton assumed he did, and the eldest crossed the room to open the above ground window near the top of the wall. "Anyway, I knew that you two have been doing this for a while, I’ve tried getting Michael to stop multiple times but obviously that hasn’t fucking worked. I'm not stupid. I’ve been making small attempts to get you to stop, too, Calum, but it hasn’t worked and you still smoke--” He gestured to his black-haired boyfriend. “Clearly. I mean, I kiss you every night, idiot. Did you really not think I knew?”

Calum paused. “I just haven’t ever thought about it too much… I figured you at least knew but I never knew you knew where I hung out to do it.”

“Well, I know. I’ve always known.” Ashton stated.

“Okay, so why are you here then?” Michael mumbled, playing with the cigarette in between his fingers. “I mean, you’re a nurse. They stay away from this kind of shit, don’t they?”

Ashton arched an eyebrow. “Cher smokes, she goes on cigarette breaks all the time, and she’s still a nurse. Just because you’re a nurse doesn’t mean you can’t smoke. I guess. Whatever. It doesn’t matter! Just. Give me one.”

It was a simple request, but it had gained the attention from his boyfriend and the boy sitting on the floor and it made Ashton’s hands shake more. He never really liked drugs. Never really got into them, but if the two refused to stop for no reason (seriously, it could really benefit them later in life) he figured he might as well try it and see what the fucking hype is with it. It was a stupid idea, but he meant business as he sat down next to Michael, looking at him with an arched eyebrow.

“What do you not get about it?” Ashton asked impatiently, his patience growing thin since Calum was just standing there, his mouth open like he couldn’t believe his own boyfriend asked to smoke a cigarette for the first time in his life. “Hand me one of those cancer-sticks.”

Ashton ignored how Calum rolled his eyes and sat down in his spot again, placing a hand on his thigh. He also ignored when Calum asked, “what are you doing?”

“I’m asking for a cigarette. Did you kill too many brain cells smoking to comprehend what I just said, both of you?” Ashton asked, holding out his hand now as he asked again for one. Michael just rolled his eyes, grumbling something under his breath. He reached over and grabbed the cigarette packet, grabbing a cig for the blond and placed it in his hand. “Lighter?” Ashton asked after a moment.

It was Calum’s turn, apparently, because the white-haired boy looked toward him when Ashton asked for one. Calum’s movements seemed stiff as he reached over, lighter in hand, and Ashton put the cigarette in his mouth and held it still while Calum lit the thing.

It was in that moment that Ashton knew he was going to be royally _fucked_.

He never knew how to do this. He’s never any experience with it. He’s never known how to do this. How do you even smoke?

It was even worse as Ashton watched the two boys arch an eyebrow over at each other, and Ashton tried to suck on it like he had seen Cher do while she was out on her breaks. Michael seemed to carry on as normal, finding that his cigarette was out and he grabbed for a new one, but Ashton kicked the boy’s leg.

“What?” Michael asked and Ashton wiggled a finger at him. “Fine. Are you okay?”

There was smoke from the cigarette that got into Ashton’s lungs and he almost choked, grabbing the cigarette and pulling it out of his mouth, coughing roughly. His eyes were watering by just how it practically _burned_ his esophagus, and he didn’t like the feeling of it and it all made sense now, he could tell from this moment why he chose to never, ever _fucking_ do it before. “I’m fine!” he coughed out, lowering his gaze as Calum took the cigarette from the blond, setting it in the ashtray.

“Do you need water or something?” Calum asked, ignoring how Michael spat out that he wasted one for no reason, and Ashton shook his head, but the Kiwi boy kept asking and so he had no choice but to agree with him. The two headed up the stairs as Ashton coughed, and he could tell that the other was getting worried about him. Good. He almost just coughed up a lung to get Calum (and maybe Michael, too) to fucking stop. He could handle Calum getting worked up over nothing. He deserved it.

But, Calum still sat Ashton down with a glass of water, and the curly-haired boy adjusted his glasses.

“So, are you going to quit?” Ashton asked after a moment, and he could still fucking see the hesitation in Calum’s eyes and it made the blond want to seethe with rage, because he just did that fucking stunt for no reason? “Then have me smoke with you. Let me smoke with you."

Calum raised his eyebrows, shaking his head. "You're going to continue?" He asked incredulously, and Ashton nodded his head. “But, why?”

“Well, you’re fucking doing it. Give me one.” Ashton ordered once more, holding his hand out impatiently. “I know you have a pack with you right now. Give me one of them, Calum.” He watched as Calum dug through his pockets, mumbling something about _you don’t have to do this_ under his breath and Ashton just didn’t give a shit about it anymore, this plan was maybe going to work and he would actually fucking live to see the day where Calum wasn’t smoking with Michael. Well, maybe. Depended on how his body handled the cigarettes. He didn’t know how long it would take until he would get addicted to them, was the nicotine already starting to work from the first one? He didn’t know, and honestly at this point in time he didn’t care, and before he knew it there was a cigarette in his mouth, Calum lighting the end with a frown on his face. Calum then lit one for himself, placing it in his mouth while he put the lighter away.

“Alright, now. Since you want to do this, let me show you how to do it.” Calum mumbled and Ashton rolled his eyes, crossing his arms. He gave the Kiwi boy the look of _I know how to fucking do this_ , but it was soon cut off by Calum answering back, “really? Then why didn’t you do it downstairs?” and Ashton looked off to the side. “Ashton. Back at me. Okay? Listen, you just inhale, take the cigarette out of your mouth, or keep it in, doesn’t really matter, and then you exhale. That’s all you do.” Calum then demonstrated it; inhaling the smoke, moving the cigarette, and exhaling, blowing the smoke away from Ashton. He then looked back at his boyfriend, arching an eyebrow and running his hand through his hair. “Okay?”

Ashton inhaled (and tried not to die as the smoke once again burned his throat) and moved the cigarette out of his mouth, just like he had seen Calum do, and exhaled away from the other boy, tears filling his eyes because that fucking _hurt_. How Calum does it without even a fucking expression on his face was mind boggling, but he also had been doing it since he was seventeen and that explained a lot. But, Calum had still forced a smile whenever Ashton looked at him, the cigarette in between two fingers. He almost didn’t want to do it again. He was fighting the urge to cough it all back up, out of his lungs forever. How Calum did this, again, was mind boggling.

“I’m really not sure I want you doing this…” Calum mumbled and Ashton rolled his eyes, waving his hand like he didn’t have a care in the world about it.

* * *

It was a week later, and honestly, Calum was getting worried. Ashton had been coughing up a storm, coughing like he was going to die, coughing like he was going to choke up a lung and Calum was honestly having none of it. He had only smoked with them three separate occasions after starting, accidentally burning himself a few times as he stumbled under the gaze of Michael. But Calum had started to worry more; it was maybe on Wednesday where Ashton really caught onto what he was thinking about, watching him with intense eyes that seemed _too_ intense to be from Ashton, and it worried him.

That, however, didn’t mean that he should ignore Calum’s concerned looks whenever he coughed, especially when he had to pause their little makeout session after Calum had just took a drag by the window, because Ashton couldn’t fucking _breathe_. Calum was sure that just because he was used to kissing his mouth which tasted like cigarettes, he just couldn’t handle it anymore after experiencing it for himself.

But to be honest, Calum could tell that Ashton was glad that he was so worried about him. So, whenever Calum called Michael and his boyfriend (a nice kid named Luke) over to their house, it was easy to tell that Ashton knew something was up. What it was, he wasn’t sure, but he almost seemed eager to find out.

“Are we gonna smoke again?” Ashton asked and Calum shook his head, noticing the blond almost wanting to wheeze again from saying that.

“There is no way I’m allowing you near cigarettes ever again. That was stupid. I honestly think you’re starting to get allergic to the smoke. I mean, I always smoked somewhere else so you wouldn’t have to breathe it in. So you’re not smoking ever again. You’re not coming near cigarettes ever again.” Calum grumbled and Ashton arched an eyebrow, keeping his eyes trained on the boy in front of him.

“But, then, you and Michael can’t be around me anymore.” Ashton smirked. “So then, naturally I’m going to be around cigarettes.” Calum rolled his eyes, going to sit down on the couch and Ashton followed, sitting down on his lap and reaching into his pocket, grabbing one cigarette from the pack he had and lighting it with the lighter. “I’m not allergic,” Ashton said, taking a drag from it and Calum wanted to flinch. How Ashton had convinced Michael that he had mastered it down was beyond him, because he could tell that Ashton wanted to die after inhaling one puff. There was that concerned look on his damn face before he took the cigarette from Ashton’s mouth and the blond pouted. “Calum?”

“Quit it, you’re gonna make yourself sick.” He could tell the blond wanted to argue, but he wouldn’t allow that to happen and he placed the cigarette in the ashtray beside them, leaning in and kissing him. He then pulled away, smiling a bit as he heard the doorbell ring. He had some news for the two that he knew Michael wasn’t going to be too happy to hear, but Ashton, maybe. Depends. “Can you go get that, since you’re on me?” Ashton nodded and stood, giggling to himself and Calum couldn’t help but look at him. “You’re really the best thing in my life, Ashy.”

Ashton looked over at his shoulder toward him, giving him an endearing look before answering the door. Michael came in with Luke, or who he assumed it was Luke, and Calum saw Michael wink at Ashton before sitting down next to the black-haired boy, and Calum fought the urge to kick him in his throat.

“So what are we here for?” Michael asked and Calum’s hands shook. This was going to be harder than he thought it was going to be, definitely. He could already feel Michael’s glare on him when he hesitated, and with a shrug, Michael arched an eyebrow. “Seriously. What’s up?”

“I want to quit,” Calum admitted when Ashton walked into the room and he could see a glimmer of delight shine in the boy’s eyes. Michael’s, not so much. “I want to quit smoking.”

“What? No, that’s crazy.” Michael argued, looking at the black-haired boy on the couch with a bit of a glare in his eyes. “That’s definitely crazy, why are you wanting to quit all of a sudden?” Calum couldn’t help but glance toward Ashton before back at Michael, and he heard the white-haired boy let out a sigh.

But, before Michael could open his dumb mouth and say something nasty, Ashton stepped in with, “we could all quit together!” and he smiled, sitting down on Calum’s lap. “I mean, think about it. We could all be healthy together, not to mention we’ll have more money to buy other things instead of cigarettes or something.” Ashton was practically ecstatic, bouncing up and down in Calum’s lap , and the black-haired boy had to keep his arms around his waist to tell him to calm down, otherwise he’d cough and that’s not something he’d want to happen. “I don’t really know what cause Calum to decide this but I’m glad he did, because it was starting to hurt.” The blond smiled, looking at Michael and Michael rolled his eyes.

“Well then I’m glad we’re quitting together,” Calum smiled, placing a kiss to his shoulder blade.

“No, I’m not doing it,” Michael grumbled and the blond pouted, getting off of the Kiwi boy (much to his disdain) and he sat near Michael, pulling him into a hug. Calum saw Michael flip him off behind Ashton’s back, and he shrugged. Whatever. “Don’t I get a say in this?”

“Pleeeease, Mikey?” Ashton begged and it was silent for a second as Ashton pulled back, staring at him and Calum couldn’t see the look in his eyes, but he was sure the blond was giving him puppy eyes. And, of course it worked, because there was just a slight nod from the white-haired boy that Calum could see and Ashton jumped up, throwing his fist into the air before saying, “I’ll go make us some cookies! Luke, do you want to help?”

As both blonds went into the kitchen, Michael had a glare in his eye and a scowl on his face, and if looks could kill, Calum would be dead. That fucking bastard looked like a viper. That wasn’t settling at all. “What?” Calum asked, arching an eyebrow over at him.

“I know you’re wrapped around Ashton's finger and all, but next time, leave me out of it! When you wanna do some romantic thing for him, try to warn me ahead of time so I won't be part of this!” Michael hissed and Calum rolled his eyes.

“I am not wrapped around his finger. I was just worried for his health, that was all. Seriously, he was coughing up a storm and I felt so bad.” Calum admitted, crossing his arms. “That doesn’t mean I’m wrapped around his finger.”

“Really? He seemed a little eager for you to quit. You knew that he was trying to get you and me to quit the entire time. And he got fed up with it, so he tried it and look at where we’re now.” Michael grumbled, ignoring how Calum looked away from him. “You’re wrapped around his pretty, little finger.”

“That’s not true,” Calum huffed, looking to the left and Michael rolled his eyes.

“You’re so fucking lovestruck, Calpal.” Michael sighed. “But fine. I’ll try to quit because you had to be so fuckin’ far up Ashton’s ass.” He ignored how Calum smirked. “Don’t want to hear it, don’t even say anything about your dick. You’re wrapped around his finger. Admit it.”

As soon as Calum was going to retort back some reply, Ashton came back, leaning over the back of the couch. “Want to help us make the cookies, Cally?” he asked, wrapping his arms around Calum’s shoulders and he smiled, looking up at him and agreeing quickly. Ashton smiled, kissing his head before walking back into the kitchen.

He then turned to Michael, who made a heart with his hands, making a kissy face at him and Calum arched an eyebrow. “Shut up, Clifford.”

“Just saying. You’re so in love with him.”

Calum paused. “Yeah, I am in love with him. And I guess wrapped around his finger. But I’m not complaining. Come on, come help.” Michael laughed and cried out in victory, since he officially admitted he was lovestruck, but the Kiwi boy rolled his eyes and ignored him, heading to the kitchen, a white-haired boy following after him, laughing his ass off even if he was still upset about the whole quitting-smoking thing. “Shut up, Mike. I love him,” he muttered proudly, wrapping his arms around Ashton’s waist. “And we’re gonna try and stop smoking, okay? Deal?”

Michael sighed, “deal,” and Ashton beamed.


	29. whip it [muke]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “So I'm really in love with your Two Birds of a Feather series thing and I watched Whip It yesterday and started thinking about girlsos doing roller derby. With Michael being really tough and feeling like they finally belong (maybe being genderfluid) and Luke being a young newcomer that threatens her spot. Or maybe Cal is a young rookie and Ash takes her under her wing but in her first game someone hits Ash hard and Cal gets defensive and goes after them and they make out or something. Idk. Sorry”
> 
> for an anon from tumblr B)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> holy crap!!! it's been so long! i've missed you all. even if you don't know it. i just have been having a bad few months and everything is moving so slowly (and fast, too? like its hard to keep up). anyway, i've had this prompt for like 2 months and i think it was finally time to actually finish it up.... because i havent updated since march!! weird, right? but hopefully i shall be back and making new fics and finishing up this one (even with finals coming up... oh no). so enjoy!! x

As soon as Luke stepped into the rink with her head held high, she knew she was going to get in trouble for it. She had only had one conversation with the leader, a bitchy older girl with flaming red hair, whatever her name was, and she knew from many arguments that this wasn’t her place to be in.

Well, technically, it was her place to be in, since she had made the team (surprisingly) and now it was their first game, but that didn’t mean that it would be too friendly between the two rivals on the same team.

But Luke had Calum beside her and so everything was okay. Calum was allowed to join the team without a second thought, because she was that good. It kind of made Luke jealous how easily Calum was accepted, because Luke was that good as well, but it was only because of Ashton that it was easy for the Kiwi girl.

Ashton was a much older girl, older than the leader, but with a warm smile on her face. She ended up quickly taking a liking to Calum (so that was why Luke was able to join -- she was sure that the eldest girl had put her thoughts in with the captain). Luke was glad that Ashton also liked her, but for some unknown reason she was more concerned with the redhead, who wouldn’t even spare a glance toward her.

And that pissed her off.

But here Luke was, walking with Calum to hopefully try and get on the redhead girl’s good side by playing extra hard tonight. It was their first match, it was the least Luke could do for her, to prove that she would’ve been wrong if she truly dismissed Luke.

She just wished this match would rid of the girl’s fucking attitude, though.

Luke’s hands shook as she braided her hair, pulling it up and out of her face, staying nearby the Kiwi girl in hopes that she doesn’t get bitched out by the girl with the fierce look in her eyes.

Even if the redheaded girl did have to _look up_ at her to yell in her face. And that was superiority at its finest.

“Are you sure I should be here?” the blond asked, looking at the black-haired girl, who was busying herself with her skates. “I mean, I made the team but I feel like I shouldn’t even be here…”

Calum arched an eyebrow, looking over at her. Luke paused.

“Is that normal?”

“That’s not good,” Calum said, tying the knot on her skates. “That’s now how a team should feel, you know? Besides, Ashton likes you and I’m sure she’ll do everything she can to make sure that Michelene likes you.”

Luke shrugged, sitting down and bothering with her skates. She hadn’t ever really heard the girl’s actual name before. It was unique. Like her.

Luke was still looking around, and whenever her eyes landed on the redhead, she ducked her head down. “She saw me, abort the mission, she saw me!”

“She knows you’re on the team, idiot.” Calum deadpanned, looking at her with her hands on her hips.

“I just hope she doesn’t come over here,” she argued, and she looked back up at where she last saw the redhead, only to see her stomping over to them, an Ashton following along behind her.

Yep, fate really hated her. Made it so it seemed that fate just wanted to strangle her and tear her apart for all the hatred, like in those criminal investigation shows and whatnot.

Luke’s voice caught in her throat as the redheaded girl stopped in front of Calum, muttering out, “do well, okay? We’re gonna win this.” She spoke like she was speaking to only Calum, even if Luke was there behind her, and Ashton groaned, smacking her forehead.

“There’s not just Cally on the team, Michael.” Ashton said, and Luke made the mental note to thank her later for not only having the recognition, but to also complain to her that now, suddenly, she was getting _noticed_ by the _redhead_. Michael rolled her eyes and looked over to Luke, who finished tying her skates, and the blond stood taller than her.

“This is important to us, understand? _Don’t_ mess up,” she hissed with a glare in her eyes and in a moment, she stomped off. Ashton tugged on her ponytails, which, now that Luke thought about it, should be up higher on her head and not as loose, but she didn’t say anything about it. She figured Ashton was just doing that before the game.

She instead shouted out after Michael, “I’m not gonna mess up, you can count on that!”

It went quiet between the two before Ashton just nodded her head, pumping her fist up into the air, “let’s go!”

* * *

Out on the floor was tougher than Luke had expected, but she got the technique down quickly and she was, rather _unexpectedly_ , assigned to be the leader. She could see Michael fuming in the corner, hearing the redhead shouting profanities at Ashton, who simply rolled her eyes. After Michael’s little temper tantrum, however, Luke noticed that the two made it out on to the floor, into formation by the line and Luke was handed the hat with the stars.

She was the jammer, the most important one who would have to stay in more than two minutes, lapping the other team. She also was the one everyone went after.

That was normally Michael’s job, so why on earth did Ashton ever think that Luke could handle it? Michael was the captain. Michael was the leader. She was always the jammer, not some newbie, like Luke. Though, she probably could better than the redhead, but not with Michael egging her on, pushing her shoulder and harshly whispering, “don’t mess up, Hemmings” when she was supposed to be blocking.

Michael was assigned to be the pivot, one of those special blockers that would fill in for Luke in the course of the play and that was the best that Ashton could compromise, _apparently_ , but that didn’t make Michael any happier with either one of the girls.

There was a cheeky girl behind Luke, a girl named Rachael, and she smiled at her. At least she was trying to be friendly. It didn’t make the knot in Luke’s stomach any better, because she turned and Michael was glaring at her.

“You better hope you can be good at being a jammer,” she said, pushing Luke to the jammer line with a rough shrug. Both Michael and Rachael stayed up in front of Luke, and Ashton and Calum soon joined them. Luke looked over her shoulder and saw another jammer beside her, and the girl had a confused face.

“Michael switched out?” the girl asked, “good riddance. She’s horrible.”

There was something… new that riled up inside Luke’s stomach, something she hadn’t ever experienced before when talking about the redhead. The blond girl nodded, even though she couldn’t stop herself from wanting to hit the unknown (rude) girl. How dare she say that about Michael? Michael may be bitchy, but she’s not horrible. Ashton absolutely adores her. She couldn’t be horrible.

“I didn’t really want to be a jammer,” Luke admitted quietly, but she was simply ignored as the game began, and her thoughts went into the back of her head. It was game time, and all her muscles seemed to be effortlessly collaborating with her brain to get her the strength and skill she needed to make it around the track.

She felt someone trying to push her out, but she stayed strong, even when the redhead from her team shrugged the opposing girl away.

“Thought ya said ya could handle this.” Michael scowled, her pursed lips tightly pressed together after she asked her question. Luke rolled her eyes, wanting to link arms with her to get her to stay by her, but knowing that it wouldn’t be able to work like that (and, she was here to prove a point) she kept her elbows tucked out, as she skated along the edge of the track.

“I can, no need to check up on me.” Luke grumbled, continuing to skate with the flow of the crowd, who were trying to push Luke around. “Though, I find it kind of cute that you're checking up on me.”

Luke’s tongue had let that slip but as soon as she said it, she wanted to take it back. Though it was amusing, she could see fire in Michael’s eyes, a sort of weird combination between anger, embarrassment, and… interest? It was definitely an odd combo, surely not one that the blond girl had ever seen on her at any time of day whenever the two were in the same room.

(For a while, Calum had had Luke convinced that Michael was just a witch who didn’t like people in general because she killed them for a living. A very highly unlikely story, really, but Luke never counted out the ‘witch’ part, not when she had made the joke of Michael being a witch with a B.)

Finally realizing she had accidentally distracted both her and Michael at once, but being able to have their muscles kick in, defensively blocking anyone, Luke had seen a girl tug on Ashton’s ponytail, knocking the small girl down on the track with a loud _clank!_ of her helmet.

The game was suddenly paused, and Luke had stopped on her toes, effectively stopping her skates. Michael seemed to have the same idea, along with other members of the opposite team and the refs were pulling the girl who had done the defensive move away from Calum, who, apparently, had taken the incentive to charge after the opposing girl. Luke glanced toward Michael, but she seemed to pay no attention as she helped Ashton up, wincing at how the tan girl groaned.

“N-No, I can’t stand up, it hurts…” the blond hissed as she returned to her submissive state of sitting on the floor of the track. “Ouch, that one hurt,” Ashton said quietly, glancing at Calum (who seemed to be close to mouthing the girl off) out of the corner of her eye as she took off her helmet. “Calum.” Her voice was quiet and almost hushed, like she was expecting the girl to hear her as a referee came over to check how she was. “I’m hurt but, I just need Calum over here,” she said, rubbing her forehead.

“Are you okay--?” Luke began to ask Ashton, but Michael looked over at Luke, a glare in her eyes that made the blond straighten her back defensively. Why was she looking at her like that? It wasn’t _her_ fault!

But after a moment, it took the blond by surprise to realize that Michael wasn’t glaring at her, she was glaring _past_ her, to the jammer on the opposing team. Luke really didn’t care at that point. She was just lucky that she wasn’t gonna get chewed out by the fiery redhead about this. At least Michael had some moral ideas, like how it would be impossible to claim that this was Luke’s fault, like the blond knew she wanted to do.

“Calum, quit.” Ashton repeated again and Luke watched as Calum almost seemed to mirror Luke’s earlier actions: straightening her back, pausing her sentence, getting a suspicious look in her eye as she turned to face the blond. Calum skated over to her, towering over her, but it was still enough to have the black-haired girl kneel down beside her.

“I-I’m sorry,” Calum apologized, pulling the girl close and Michael turned to the side a bit, glancing at Luke as they continued to speak to each other in hushed voices, and Luke followed suit to not to be rude. Occasionally, Luke would hear a tiny little kiss being applied to someone’s skin and she paused when she realized what was really going on. She never really did think that anything like _that_ was going on between the two members, though it would explain Calum’s irrational, blind-rage outbreak. Though, Luke kind of felt betrayed. She was hoping Calum would’ve at least told her about it.

“Love birds,” Michael mumbled. Luke froze, not knowing what to do. Michael actually muttered something to her, and the blond was able to see a small smile growing on her face while she tried to hide it under a look of feign disgust. “Can you still play, Ashton?” she asked.

Ashton grumbled that she would try her hardest, but the little shake of the head from the referee caused Michael to throw her hands up in the air, letting out a frustrated scream as she turned to make her way toward the opposing girl, who was busy talking to her teammates. Luke grabbed onto Michael’s wrist, and the look on her face was enough to scare Luke beforehand, but honestly, now, she had had enough of Michael’s bullshit. Calum already ranted to the girl, she didn’t need to hear it from another.

“We can have a fill in if it’s best for the team.” Luke glanced at the redhead. “Because I’m not going down without a fight, especially if this is the game where I have to prove myself to you.”

There was a small dawning of realization that seemed to smack Michael in the face before she nodded toward the referee, telling him that they’ll move Ashton off of the track and trade it in with another girl on their team, a girl by the nickname of Axel (and Luke personally didn’t know her that well, but she knew that Axel was a sweet girl). Breathing out a sigh, Luke glanced down at the redhead.

“You really do care a lot about my opinion, hm?” Michael asked as Calum helped Ashton up, saying that she had her and that she’d be able to escort her. Luke shrugged a shoulder, throwing a smirk in the girl’s direction.

“All I wanna do is play. Never meant to destroy your rep or take your place.” Luke answered honestly, grinning a bit in replace of the smirk, and Michael swatted her arm. “Ow, what was that for?”

“You haven’t destroyed my rep, you arse,” Michael grumbled, “and you’re already on the team. So. I mean. I guess I have to like you.”

“Doesn’t feel like it,” Luke muttered before she could let the thought get away from her, much like she wanted to get away from Michael at the moment. Brilliant green eyes were flashing at her, some kind of feeling tucked away in them that Luke couldn’t read. “You don’t like me.”

“You’re just that good at playing and so…” Michael admitted quietly. “And so I guess I was jealous. Can we not talk about this now? We have a game to play.”

Luke grinned. “If only you promise not to be jealous,” she said, testing the waters and placing a casual arm around Michael’s shoulders. The redhead visibly tensed, and when the blond pulled back the arm, saying how she was just trying to be coy and a little tease, Michael just shook her head and pulled on the girl’s arm, placing it back around her shoulders.

“You’re an idiot if you think I won’t be jealous.”


	30. they look like me [cashton]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Her dress was rigid and a deep red color, and her hair was covered in dirt, but her unmistakeable blond, curly hair and glasses caught Ashton’s attention. That doll looked like him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> from _shmurdapunk_ on tumblr: imagine dating an immortal and finding a photo album of their exes who all sort of look like you dating back a century  
> \--  
> AYE LOOK WHO FINALLY UPDATED THIS  
> there's ten more of these left. :( but thanKS FOR THE 5K HITS GUYS YOU'RE AWESOME AND RAD AF

Being in Calum’s house was scary. There were too many hiding spots where the boy could be secretly located, where he could just jump out and scare him, and Ashton didn’t like that too much. There were little crooks and places that other very scary things could hide in (like Calum’s friend, Luke, for example) and Ashton should’ve expected it for being such an old house, but he was also scared of the fact that it was so huge. It was gigantic and at the top of a eerie hill and Ashton could easily get lost.

But what was even more terrifying was the fact that Calum _wasn’t_ in the house at the moment. That meant that Ashton was completely by himself, and the floorboards were creaking under his weight and he couldn’t help but flinch every time the wood made a sound.

Calum’s dogs were in the backyard, keeping quiet as they slept in the grass. Ashton could see them from the hallway, through the sliding glass door that led to the grassy hills. One of them, Lucky, had a dog toy hanging out of his mouth, and Ashton smiled as he crept upstairs. He didn’t really like snooping around the house while Calum was gone, but every time that he left Ashton would get this _brilliant_ idea to look around the house, to just see how old Calum really was. He had a vague idea, really; Calum wasn’t really an open book, and so that ‘vague idea’ wasn’t _good enough_. He wanted to know how old he was. He wanted to know about his family. He wanted to know who he was married to, who he was with and what they did. Because being an immortal meant he had multiple partners, and Calum _never_ talked about them. Ashton wondered what happened to them, if they were still alive (highly unlikely, but maybe) or what they died of, or even what they looked like. And, he also wondered if he would end up the same way. He was just simply curious.

As he made it into Calum’s room, he heard the dogs barking and he froze. What if Calum was home? Not knowing what his past lovers were like was driving Ashton up a wall and he couldn’t stand to not know, not anymore. He wanted to know what Calum’s type was, if he had one, because how on earth could an immortal fall in love with him? He ignored the dogs barking, they probably saw a bird or something, and he made it into Calum’s closet, looking around the small room.

There were a bunch of clothes, a whole bunch of older looking ones that were shoved to the back to be replaced by the kind of clothes he wore in this century, this _decade_ , really, and shoes thrown onto the floor (along with some more articles of clothing) but where were the boxes? The boxes of things he had over the years? Don’t people keep those things in their closet?

As Ashton looked above his head though, he saw a small trapdoor on the ceiling, most likely for an attic and a little light went on above Ashton’s head. _Bingo_.

He went back into the bathroom where the closet was attached to, and grabbed the chair Calum had set up in front of his mirror. He’d put it back later. He positioned the chair directly underneath the door and climbed on top of it, pushing open the door.

Ashton hoisted himself up onto the floor of the attic and, in the process of doing so, kicked over the chair with his foot with a loud _thump_. He rolled his eyes.

“Fuck!” he shouted, struggling to climb up but found the upper body strength to do so. He sighed and looked around, noticing the chair covered by a blanket next to a small window of the attic that lit up every single portion of the room, every single tiny crevice. There was dust everywhere, he could see the little specks of dust floating in the sun’s rays and it felt peaceful being up here. He almost wanted to stay and just sit by the small window, when he remembered he had a mission; he didn’t just accidentally scrape up his elbows for nothing. He closed up the door, not bothering to latch it shut, hoping that Calum didn’t come into his closet and see the discarded chair. Ashton technically could go over to his house whenever he wanted but he wasn’t supposed to be there until later on that evening.

Ashton glanced around the mountains of boxes, and figured there had to be at least seventy of them, if not more, along with a chest in the back of the room. This was going to take forever, and he knew Calum wasn’t going to be gone long, he had at least thirty minutes left. He was only at the store, getting food for their dinner later on. Ashton felt a bit guilty for snooping around his house, but there was no going back and he sighed, cracking open a box.

There were small antiques littered around in the box, covered in dust and some in dirt. Ashton crinkled his nose up at them, but still picked up one of the dolls he had in there. Her dress was rigid and a deep red color, and her hair was covered in dirt, but her unmistakeable blond, curly hair and glasses caught Ashton’s attention. That doll looked like him.

Weird.

He discarded the doll and placed her gently back into the box, and continued searching around. There were old relics and heirlooms from Calum’s family, tickets to circuses and events that he went to over the years, along with photographs and paintings of him and his family.

“So, you were part of a wealthy family,” Ashton mumbled aloud, his fingers stroking the glass over Calum’s face. Calum looked healthy in the picture, which was good, and he looked younger and absolutely adorable. He wondered when he stopped aging. Calum was able to look like a twenty-year old, so maybe that was when it happened? It was certainly possible.

He left the painting of him and his family out, just to have. Certainly Calum wouldn’t know (or even care?) and so he wondered if he could just _have_ it. He kept it off to the side and dived into another set of boxes, labeled _Victoria 2_ and immediately Ashton was interested. The boxes seemed to not have a timeline, except for the first box and this one, and he continued looking at the photographs and items he had in there. Ashton saw a framed painting, and he picked it up, wiping off the dust with his hand. It was a picture of a girl, surely the same girl as the doll, with her curly hair and glasses. She had a thin, pale face, dimples on her cheeks, and her dress collar looked awfully uncomfortable, but she was still smiling brightly. Underneath her picture was the word, scrawled out in ink, _Victoria_.

Ashton paused.

“This was your first girlfriend,” he noted quietly to himself, glancing at her painting. He was able to see his own reflection in the glass when the sunlight shone on it, and he grimaced. Calum definitely had a type. But, he couldn’t just determine that from one person, and so where were the other ones?

He wondered what happened to this Victoria, and he set her painting down to search through the box once more. There was a tiny leather book, closed tightly by a string, and Ashton figured that had to have a clue in it. It had to. Using his teeth, he successfully untied the string and opened the book quickly. He sat on his bum instead of his knees and began to read Calum’s messy cursive.

Some of the script was short, to the point, like Calum usually was but there wasn’t any romance or anything that Ashton expected until he got to the summer portion, and there, repeatedly, he saw Victoria’s name. He felt a twinge of jealousy rise up in his chest, since _she was the ocean and flowers, the passion of the sun’s heat and the rage of the storm’s thunder_ and what was Ashton? Ashton was Ashton, and that’s all he’d ever be.

This was a bad idea.

He threw the book across the room, and it hit a box and cracked open to a random page, a small painting on parchment paper falling out. Ashton looked over at it curiously, noticing a limp dress hanging from a noose and he almost choked, looking at the book instead.

_August._

_Victoria was hanged. Her mother found us. Claimed she committed adultery. Victoria was sentenced to death. Her mother poisoned me. I feel odd._

_Victoria’s mother was a witch. The townsmen burned her. I do not know what to think._

Ashton sighed, closing the book and retying it, with the picture of Victoria’s body tucked away in there so he wouldn’t have to look at it any longer. Victoria’s mother was definitely the one who made Calum immortal. It had to be her. Why she did it was still a mystery, may always be one to Calum, but it was her.

The curly-haired boy looked over at the window, spotting a chair covered in a blanket. Unlike everything else in the room, the blanket wasn’t dusty at all and that rose Ashton’s suspicions. Discarding the small book, he got up and walked over to the chair, pulling the blanket off, spotting another book, a much bigger photobook. He had found it. This had to have all of his girlfriends and things in it. It had to.

He took a seat in the chair, ignoring how it creaked like everything else in the house and he opened the first page. There were paintings of Victoria, little excerpts from Calum’s journal about her pasted on there as well, to make up from the lack of her face. He flipped past a few pages and saw another girl, same blond curly hair and dimples. She was a bit tanner than Victoria, so she was most likely poor, but Calum didn’t seem to care as he compared her to the earth. Another ping hit Ashton’s heart as he continued to wander aimlessly throughout the pages, noticing how every girl had light, curly hair and dimples. It wasn’t until the 1800s where Calum started to use black and white photos instead of paintings, and he was photographed with the girl he was with at that time. They were probably married.

He turned the page and saw a later photograph, one with Calum and a boy in a dress next to the mother, and Ashton let out a small, choked sob. He was expecting that to happen, so why was he crying? His fingers shook as he began to torment himself, looking at all of his girlfriends and wives he had as time went on, multiple pictures and little memories pasted on the pages next to them.

Ashton got to his most recent one, besides him, a woman in the 1960s and he could see from how she looked, she was tan, with big, brown eyes, glasses and curly blond hair. And, of course, dimples.

He shifted in the chair, trying to get comfortable, ignoring the squeaking and creaking of the wood beneath him. He looked out the window, noticing how roomy and nice it was and he figured that Calum probably came up here frequently and sit since the blanket wasn’t dusty.

He probably missed Victoria.

Ashton’s fingers continued to shake as he started crying even harder, and he pushed the book onto the floor with a loud _thump!_ to avoid ruining the yellowed pages. He was wailing, but that didn’t matter because Calum wasn’t home, he wouldn’t know, and he didn’t plan on stopping any time soon. He was just another replacement for Victoria and he’d never be good enough. All of those girls were just replacements for Victoria but yet, they were better than him because they could give Calum children and he couldn’t.

"Ashton?” Calum’s voice interrupted his cries and he paused, looking at the small trap door on the floor, squinting a bit since it was blurry from the tears. He whimpered a bit, completely caught in the act and his cheeks burned in embarrassment. Here he was crying over Calum’s past lovers and Calum had fucking caught him. _Make a run for it as soon as you can, Calum, or else you’d be stuck with me._ He ignored how silent Calum was as he hoisted himself up gracefully, like he had done it a thousand times, which he probably had, but whatever. The black-haired boy made his way over to Ashton, kneeling in front of him. “Ashton, what’s wrong, why are you crying?”

“Calum,” Ashton whined, blinking his eyes a bit to squeeze the tears out, “they look like me.” Calum’s look of realization made the blond’s stomach flip, and he would rather be punched in the mouth much more than be looking at his own boyfriend at the moment. But instead Calum just hesitantly giggled a little, stroking Ashton’s cheek.

“You’re sad that they look like you?” he arched an eyebrow.

“They look like me and I look like _her_ ,” Ashton whined and Calum retracted his hand away as he looked over his shoulder at the photo album the blond threw. He reached over and grabbed it, opening it up to a page Ashton didn’t recognize.

“They may look like you, and you may look the closest to Victoria, Ashton, but I don’t love you because of that reason.” Calum sighed, turning the book so Ashton could read it. There were pictures of them together, of Ashton goofing around and reading and drinking coffee. There was a picture of Ashton that he recognized Calum drew, and there was the burning sensation in his cheeks again. There were many more pages of Ashton than he had realized, most of which were pictures of him, little small moments the two had together. There was Calum's messy handwriting again, talking about Ashton and how he was sunshine and Ashton almost swooned. “I even have the tickets we went to for our first concert together. I have the recipe of the first dinner we cooked together. I have much more than you think. I may have loved Victoria but I don’t love you because of her. She had nothing to do with it.”

Ashton whined a bit and Calum pulled him into a kiss, tasting the salty tears on his lips. The blond pulled away first, looking at him, “you’re not mad that I went up here without your permission?”

Calum laughed, “I would be surprised if you hadn’t, at least once. Come on, I have stuff to cook dinner with downstairs.”

“Okay,” Ashton sighed, and looked at him, “how did you know I was up here anyway?”

“I heard you crying.”

“Oh.”

Calum pulled him into a hug when Ashton stood up, and he kissed the top of his head, mumbling “I never want to lose you,” over and over again.

And suddenly, Ashton didn’t care about Victoria or the other girls. He had Calum. And he was determined to make it last.

* * *

***bonus! lmao***

Ashton felt Calum’s eyes on him as he made their dinner. “What?” he asked as he turned to look at him, his boyfriend super close to his face.

“Take a drink of your iced mocha.” Calum ordered, a slight grin on his face. Ashton arched an eyebrow. “You said how you wanted to be with me forever?”

Ashton nodded hesitantly, and he kept his lips wrapped around the straw, not daring to take a sip without an explanation first.

“I met a witch with flaming red hair at the store today.” Calum continued. “And he made a potion for you to be mine. Forever. I put it in your iced mocha. You can take a sip if you want to be with me. If not, then that’s okay too.”

Without a second thought, Ashton took the lid off and chugged his mocha (nearly gagging afterwards though).


	31. kitty michael [muke]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Mikey," the blond said, watching as Mikey purred, jumping onto his hand and scratching and biting at it. He flinched, but didn't pull his hand away since he knew Mikey was just in a playful mood. It didn't really hurt, anyway. "I wasn't jealous of him, you know."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy birthday lukey boy.  
> -  
> also, thanks for the 200 kudos and the 5k+ hits! you're all awesome. <3

Luke wasn't a jealous type. He never was. Never will be. Swears to that, and promises to keep it for the sake of his well being. So when he found out that he had some sort of magical abilities, he didn't expect people to be jealous of it. He wasn't ever jealous of anyone or anything, but maybe that was just a philosophy his mother had created to keep him pure. Who knew, since all that Luke knew was that he had powers and a cat.

  
A cat, who was some sort of something else and was equally as powerful as Luke. A cat who happened to have faded green eyes and a black stripe going from its head, down its back, all the way to the tip of its tail. A cat who, surprisingly to Luke, happened to be _human_ as well.

  
And that damn cat/human hybrid (Luke didn't really know -- or want to know) happened to be hiding behind a couch in Luke's apartment in his cat form.

  
"Mikey! Come on, you need to take your medicine!" Luke sighed, holding the syringe with his medicine close to him, a shit ton of treats in his other, extended hand. "Michael, come on! If you're gonna be a cat, be a good little kitty and get out from behind the couch!"

  
There was a slight meow from behind the couch, and Luke automatically wondered if the small kitten had gotten stuck. "You dummy! Get out from there!"

  
Michael hissed from his hiding spot and Luke sighed, sitting on the floor in defeat.

  
"Alright, alright. You win." Luke mumbled and heard a bell, meaning someone had walked into the store on the first floor.

  
The blond heard the jiggle of Michael's collar moving, and in a moment the black and white cat popped out from behind the couch. Quickly, Luke grabbed onto him and sat him down on the counter, holding onto the back of his neck with one hand. Immediately, Michael froze, staying still as Luke was able to shove his medicine down his throat. The blond let go of the kitten's neck as soon as the liquid was down the cat's throat, and Michael coughed, growling at the obvious distaste of his medicine. "Come on, Mikey, someone's downstairs. Let's go greet them."

  
There was a meow from Michael, and Luke picked him up and held him close, and the black and white cat took that as a chance to scratch Luke's shoulder, and, just like Michael planned, Luke dropped him. The blond muttered out, "ow, okay fine, I guess I deserved that one. Come on, Mikey," and walked out into the hallway of his apartment.  
The cat purred and rubbed up against Luke's leg, begging to be picked up again. Luke glanced at him. Another meow echoed through the hall. Luke sighed and picked him up, holding him close again and the cat snuggled against his neck.

  
"You're such a confusing little kitty," Luke grumbled, making his way downstairs to greet the customer who may have some questions. When he had made it downstairs, he set Mikey down on the counter before looking at the customer, a teenage boy who was browsing the love potions. Of course. Luke didn't expect any different from him. He had known the boy from school, Calum Hood, wasn't it? Whatever, it didn't matter, and Luke leaned against the counter, closing his eyes whenever Mikey licked his face. He opened his eyes up whenever he felt someone standing there, and Calum grinned at him. "I like cats."

  
"I can see that. What's their name?"

  
"His name's Mikey." Luke answered, watching as Calum petted Mikey, and of course, comfortable with all of the attention, Mikey licked his face.

  
"Aw, you're a cutie," he said and Luke sighed, watching them more until he cleared his throat, hoping to gain the attention from Calum instead of having him focus on the damn cat. "He's so cute. Normally I don't like cats but he seems to do everything that you say. Plus, he's super cute."

  
"Yeah, he's a special little cat. Mikey, go run around somewhere else." Luke said, grabbing the cat and lifting him up, and the kitten made a sound of distaste. "Oh yeah, yeah, I know, go run around." He set the cat down on the ground, only for Mikey to jump back up on the counter. Calum laughed, kissing the cat's head and Luke huffed, putting his hands on his hips.

  
"Seems he doesn't want to run around." Calum grinned and Luke rolled his eyes, "but that's okay, he's too cute."

  
"Anyway," Luke muttered, glancing at Calum, "what can I help you with?" He pretended not to notice how the other boy continued to play with his cat and pet him as he talked.

  
"I was just looking at the love potions, I kinda have a crush on my friend and I'm just scared to tell him." Calum explained and Luke sighed, "I know that's not really the best option but I figured I would try it." Luke ignored how Mikey flopped down on the counter, inviting Calum to rub his stomach and Luke beat him to it, placing a hand on his stomach. He sighed as the kitten started to bite and scratch at his hand, but he still continued, grinning a bit. "Is there possibly another thing that could have him know already?"

  
Luke sighed, tapping his chin, "well, the love potion only lasts for six hours, and after that they don't remember what happened to them. I think the best advice would be to actually tell him," he sighed once more, noticing how Calum played with Mikey's whiskers, "don't do that," he snapped. He hated how Mikey was just letting him play with his whiskers like that, it was a little odd but was he actually jealous? No, Luke doesn't get jealous.

  
Calum glanced up at him, arching an eyebrow.

  
"He doesn't like people playing with his whiskers. He ends up running into walls for three hours afterwards." Luke clarified, grabbing his kitty and holding him like a baby. "Yeah, I think you should just tell him and then maybe, come back and tell me how that went?"

  
Calum nodded and said, "thank you," and headed toward the door, but paused and looked toward the cat, "bye, kitty, bye Luke," he said and exited. Luke looked at Mikey, arching an eyebrow.

  
"Mikey," the blond said, watching as Mikey purred, jumping onto his hand and scratching and biting at it. He flinched, but didn't pull his hand away since he knew Mikey was just in a playful mood. It didn't really hurt, anyway. "I wasn't jealous of him, you know."

  
Michael glanced up at him and meowed, seemingly saying, ' _yeah, fucking right_ ' but Luke huffed once more and petted his head.

  
"Come on, let's go get you a treat, yeah?"

  
Michael meowed as a response and hopped off of the counter, and Luke quickly scooped him up and held him as they walked upstairs.


	32. you love me? [cashton]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> imagine ur otp getting in a fight and one of them yelling that they love the other one and then it gets really quiet  
> \--  
> from tumblr.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> more cashtonnnn.

“Why can’t I?” Ashton challenged, crossing his arms tightly across his chest. He was just going to go to a party with Luke and Michael, what was the harm in that? He was just going to have some fun, maybe hook up with some girl, or whatever, what was the problem? Calum did it all the time and Ashton never complained about it. Well, maybe that was because he wanted to complain about it, but the last time he did he got a lecture from Calum himself how he could do what the fuck he wanted. He was drunk, yeah, but still. This was technically the same thing. Ashton was so close to repeating Calum’s words, but he didn’t think he would remember them.

“Because, we were going to hang out tonight.” Calum hissed, mocking Ashton’s stance and crossing his arms. Ashton tried not to listen to him, his night was ruined anyway, and he glanced back at Luke and Michael who were standing in the door. “Come on, Ashton,” he pleaded, as if he took Ashton looking back like a sign that he wanted to leave. Which, did sound like a good idea but it wasn’t like he could do that. He was screwed over, since he couldn’t just leave now, especially with Calum in such a pissy mood. “Unless you wouldn’t want to hang out with me?”

“Don’t do that damn pity trip on me,” Ashton barked, arching an eyebrow over at him. “I want to hang out with you, but I was gonna hang out with Michael and Lukey.”

Calum scoffed. “‘Lukey,’” he muttered under his breath and Ashton looked at him.

“What the fuck is your problem?” he asked, watching Calum shake his head repeatedly and laugh bitterly to himself. “Come on, Calum, what the fuck is up? Why can’t I go hang out with them? You’re acting like my mum!” Which, wasn’t true, but it was the first thing that came to mind and so Ashton just decided to roll with it. There was a gasp from Luke and a low whistle that Ashton was sure came from Michael’s lips, but he kept his glare clear and on target: Calum. There was a frown that came over Calum’s face, his eyes suddenly sad. “Look, I’m just gonna go out with them and you can sit here and feel sorry for yourself or you can hang out with someone else.”

Those sad eyes suddenly had a spark ignited in them and they were full of flames like something inside of him snapped. “I’m not going with you so I could just sit there and watch you fuck yourself over.”

“Well, okay, then, Luke and I are just gonna go… outside, yeah,” Michael muttered from behind Ashton.

Before Michael and Luke could leave, Ashton grumbled out, “Great, look at what you’ve done,” and crossed his arms and held onto them tightly.

Calum growled out something incoherent, stepping toward him and grabbing onto his shoulder, clamping his hand down on it. He pushed him toward the wall by the door, placing his forearm against Ashton’s throat and barking out, “what the _hell_ was that? You wanna blame me for this? I didn’t even do anything and you wanna blame me for this shit?” Luke grabbed onto Calum and dragged him back, and Ashton watched as Calum struggled against Luke’s grip. “You wanna blame me? Huh? Huh?”

“Luke, Michael, just leave him be, I’ll handle this,” Ashton whined, staring at Calum with a glare in his eyes, and Luke arched an eyebrow. “Just, go without me. I don’t wanna go anyway.” he muttered and the blond let go of the thrashing Kiwi boy, and Calum ran toward him. Ashton just let him, and Ashton continued, “just go, Mikey, Luke, just go, I’ll take care of it.”

The two hesitated before finally leaving with one more convincing look from Ashton, and they awkwardly shuffled out of the door, closing it behind them. Ashton glanced up at Calum, who had shoved his body against his and was glaring at him. The blond swallowed roughly.

“You really did hurt my throat when you did that,” he noted quietly and that made Calum pause, made him tense up and retract himself back. “I didn’t mean to blame you, I’m sorry, I just… I just wanted to go.”

“I didn’t want you to go,” Calum grumbled, looking off to the side so he didn’t have to look at Ashton.

“I’ve gathered that, but why couldn’t I fucking go? It’s not like I’ve been a bitch and complained about whenever you go out and get drunk with Luke!” Ashton spat, still glaring at the other boy with a scowl on his face. “I can do what I want, I’m an adult, Calum.”

“I didn’t want you to go--”

“I know that!”

“Will you let me finish?--”

Ashton stepped back a little when Calum raised his voice, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t get louder, too. “No! I’m not gonna let you finish!”

“I don’t want you going to a place where you can get smashed and fuck some girl because--”

“That’s what you do!--”

“--Because I love you!”

It went silent throughout Ashton’s house and Ashton blinked once, then twice. “You… You love me?” he asked, noticing how Calum’s ears were burning and there was a blush that swept across his cheeks. “That’s why you don’t want me going? Is because you love me?”

Calum stepped back a bit, looking at his feet. “Y-yeah, that sounds pretty dumb but, I do. I do like you -- er, love you. A lot.”

Ashton sighed and it went quiet again, before he leaned forward and punched Calum’s arm. “Don’t ever fight me like that again, asshole.” Calum rubbed the place where Ashton hit. “And, I guess I love you too. I didn’t really want to go out anyway.”

“That’s a lie.”

“It’s true.”


	33. sugar rush [muke]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> candy shop au where mikey goes in to buy chocolate every week and this time, takes calum with him, and ends up bumping into a worker who is so damn sweet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> might turn this into a fanfic as well. who knows

“I think you have a little bit of a sweet tooth, Michael,” Calum mumbled from the other side of the table, and Michael simply flipped him the bird before popping another piece of dark chocolate into his mouth. “Actually, no. A lot of a sweet tooth. Seriously, quit it.”

“It’s dark chocolate, Cal. Dark chocolate is better for you than milk chocolate. Please, I’ve done my research.” Michael grumbled, grabbing another piece and eating it. “Plus, not everyone can be on a health-diet kick like you.”

“I want you to eat a salad, or something.”

“You sound like your mother.”

Calum paused, contemplating his next words before he realized he couldn’t, he did sound like his mother and he closed his mouth, stabbing his lettuce piece with his fork. They were at a small restaurant, Calum’s favorite, and it served healthy food along with healthy smoothies and drinks and little snacks and honestly Michael was just tired of it all. He just wished he could shove a piece of chocolate in Calum’s mouth every once and a while to get him to shut up.

“Ahaha, that’s what I thought, health freak. Anyway, I’ll be fine, I’ll eat my salad too, mum.” Michael grinned whenever Calum swatted his arm, and the black-haired boy grabbed a piece of lettuce with his fork and munched down on it. “Chocolate is better.”

Calum sighed and grabbed the bag of chocolates Michael had gotten from the little candy shop on the corner of the street. He had apparently managed to grab a few pieces and pay before he was supposed to meet Calum for lunch at his favorite restaurant, which was coincidentally a few shops down from Sweet Treats, the best candy store in the world, in Michael’s opinion. Michael whined when he realized there was a lack of chocolate by his side, but Calum only smirked and said, “you’ll get your chocolate back when you finish your salad.”

“Maybe you’ll stop sounding like your mother when you stop treating me like a little kid,” Michael grumbled and took another bite of his salad. Calum just simply smiled and continued eating.

* * *

Michael had dragged Calum to Sweet Treats, not only because he thought that the younger boy could use some fucking sugar, but because the last time he was there, he found someone that might potentially be the best thing that could ever happen to Calum (not including him, of course). Calum had, of course, declined him a thousand and one times, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t just drag him along, even if he was kicking and screaming. Michael knew that Calum had a tough time with his figure, and that was why he was a health freak anyway, but a little sugar wouldn’t hurt. Or, at least that was what Michael always said.

“Seriously, Michael, I don’t want to go in--” Calum was cut off with Michael dragging him through the front door, where his sentence was soon replaced with the silent thought of, oh god, everything looks so good. Michael smiled at the familiar pink walls that were covered in cutesy little characters, like ice creams and doughnuts and candy pieces. It was a tad bit girly, even for the teenage boy who worked there, but Michael remembered hearing how Ashton’s sister had designed the whole shop (or, had basically told her mum what she wanted it to look like, since her mum was gonna give it to her whenever she was older, or something). Calum glared over at Michael whenever the black haired boy tugged on his arm, and together they walked toward the front counter.

Ashton was there, smiling, of course, and he played with the straps of his pink apron. “Okay, seriously, I think pink was such a bad idea, Mike.”

Michael laughed, “whatever. I think it suits you.” he teased before gesturing to Calum. “Ashton, this is Calum, Calum -- Ashton. Now have fun you crazy kids. I’m gonna check out more chocolate.”

Ashton groaned, “you don’t need any more chocolate! Didn’t you pay for a bag like, an hour and a half ago?” Calum’s head snapped up and he glanced at Ashton.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell him for ages.”

“Alright yeah, you um… You two bond over how much you hate me eating chocolate, and I’ll be over there, by the chocolates, not giving a fuck.” Michael smiled bittersweetly, pointing over his shoulder at the chocolate stand which he knew very well, continuing to walk backwards. Calum arched an eyebrow and Ashton started to open his mouth, starting to say something and Michael rolled his eyes, “yeah, yeah, whatever,” he said, and spun around, knocking into a tall, blond boy who happened to be carrying a tray of bonbons.

The bonbons fell to the floor and Michael staggered back a bit, and the strange, tall blond boy grabbed onto his hand to keep him from also falling onto the floor. “‘m so sorry!” the boy said, and Michael was a bit dazed by the hit rather than his pretty, deep voice.

“H-Hey, mate, don’t worry about it, I bumped into you,” Michael grinned at him and the tall boy blushed, “sorry about your bonbons.”

“Uh, it’s fine, I guess…”

Michael sighed and looked around helplessly as Ashton grabbed a broom and started to sweep. “I’m sorry,” he said and Calum glanced around. “Um, should I help or,”

The blond boy shook his head, “no, no, it wasn’t your fault.” he said, smiling.

“But, like, don’t I have to pay for those bonbons or something?”

The blond arched an eyebrow, “no. It wasn’t your fault.” He glanced toward Ashton before playing with his lip ring and running his hand through his ungelled hair.

“Luke,” Ashton said, glancing over his shoulder toward the blond, and Michael smiled. _His name was Luke_. “How about you take Michael over to the chocolates, since he _loves_ them so much?” Michael could tell Ashton was teasing him, _what a jerk_ , but then again Michael did spill bonbons so he ignored the teasing tone and blushed a little. Luke nodded his head and took Michael over to the chocolates, which the black haired boy thought was some punishment for trying to hook Ashton and Calum up. Which, he guessed, wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, since he had seen this blond working around in the shop for a while now.

“So you like chocolate?” Luke asked and Michael nodded his head, stopping to grab a bag and started to place the chocolates in them. “Mind if I pay for those for you?”

“Was that some smooth way to flirt with me?”

“Why, was it bad?” Luke asked and Michael laughed.

“No, no, it wasn’t, but seriously, you don’t have to pay for them.”

“Well, I want to.”

Michael paused and arched an eyebrow over at him, before handing him the bag. “Um, yeah, okay… You’re too damn sweet, you know that?”

Luke flashed him a grin. “That’s why I work at this place.”


	34. yup. yup. [cashton]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (314): hey remember that 14 year old i met 5 years ago who i said i would bang in 5 years  
> (636): yup.  
> (314): yup.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> short fic because i can’t writtteeeeee~ literally been having such a bad month and i've been having writer's block for like...ever now. so sorry if this is horrible!! <3

Calum lifted his head off of a pillow he knew wasn’t his. It didn’t feel like his. He wasn’t home since the bed he was in wasn’t his and the room was already way too bright, he could tell from the sun’s rays hitting him on his bare back. He cracked open his eyes, squinting almost immediately because the light was blinding him -- seriously, sun? _Do you have to be too damn bright?_ And why the hell were the blinds open? Calum never kept _his_ blinds opened for one reason in particular: so he wouldn’t be so _rudely_ interrupted by the sunshine peeking its rays into the room.

As he groaned, he felt a body shift next to him and, peeking over his shoulder, he glanced down at the tan boy beside him, his messy blond hair out of its cute little bun and in his face. Calum recognized the boy to be wearing _his_ shirt, his Nirvana shirt, _what the hell_? But he remained quiet as the boy next to him shifted once again, letting out a soft mewl that made all the memories from last night come back into his mind. Oh. Right. Coffee-shop bookstore date turned into a night his fucking hormones loved (no pun intended). Yeah. That happened.

Calum rubbed his sore shoulder (did he really lift that boy up against the wall and did what he thought he did?) and watched as the boy-- Ashton -- open his eyes. And suddenly, he really didn’t regret pouring alcohol in his coffee or into any other drink possible last night. There was a sleepy smile from Ashton, who then giggled and said, “yesterday happened, didn’t it?”

And because Calum couldn’t help himself, he laughed and said, “yeah. Yeah, it did. Weird, I didn’t think that that would happen,” which was completely false because he technically knew Ashton since he was fourteen and wanted to fuck him ever since puberty and wet dreams decided they were a good thing for his body.

He didn’t know if it were the sheer bliss from just waking up or the sex-hangover he had since last night, but Ashton continued to giggle and cuddle up next to Calum like it was the most natural thing to do in the world and he mumbled out, “but I like it.” Because of those words, the Kiwi boy was fucking hooked and before he could stop himself, before he could logically think about what the hell he was doing, he leaned down and pressed his lips against Ashton’s, moving his messy hair out of his face and curling it around his fingers. There was a tiny sound from the blond, which should’ve surprised him but really didn’t, and Calum pulled back to glance at him.

With a smirk, he said, “why don’t you make us some of your favorite breakfast?”

Ashton smiled, leaning in to give him a peck before pulling back and whispering, “I will, but you owe me dinner.”

“Deal.”

Ashton got out of bed with one more yawn, and Calum honestly tried not to stare as he walked out in his shirt and underwear (but he couldn’t resist) and instead he tried to distract himself as Ashton walked to the kitchen. He pulled out his phone, quickly texting out to Luke: _**hey remember that 14 year old i met 5 years ago who i said i would bang in 5 years?**_

A quick reply lit up his phone again and Calum checked the message: _**yup**_.

And with another smirk, Calum typed out: _**yup**_. Ignoring Luke’s rapid responses of question marks and emojis, the Kiwi boy stood up, got dressed (picking a shirt off of Ashton’s floor since the little brat had his on) and walked out to the kitchen, deciding to help the boy make them breakfast instead.


	35. my girlfriend's bitchin' [muke]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Luke Robert Hemmings, you better get your ass up! I’m tired of you sleeping, it’s four in the afternoon!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi guys!! sept 6 is my birthday ouo  
> sorry this is super duper short  
> i love she's kinda hot tbh

“Luke! Get up!”

A sharp whine entered Luke’s ears and he didn’t want to lift his head up. _Uh-oh_. Michelene was pissed. He wondered why.

“Luke Robert Hemmings, you better get your ass up! I’m tired of you sleeping, it’s four in the afternoon!”

_Oh. That’s why._

Luke lazily lifted his head up off of his soft, warm pillow and was met with the sight of his girlfriend Michelene (or as she wanted to be called, Mikey) with her hands on her hips. “Babe, please do me a favor and shut up. My head kills.”

“So you want to talk to me like that after you went out and partied all last night? Bullshit.” _Maybe that wasn’t the best thing to say_ , Luke, he thought to himself as Mikey started flipping out, throwing pillows and blankets and other things and Luke just simply put his head back down on the mattress. “I wanted to do something with you today, but no! You’re hungover! Fuck off!”

Luke watched out of the corner of his eye how Mikey then stormed out of the room and started screaming into her phone to her friend, Ashton, but that was just not fair. Ashton was his friend, too. And how was he supposed to know she wanted to do something today? She should’ve said something yesterday and then maybe he wouldn’t have gone out partying. He watched as Mikey came back upstairs to his room and held the phone out, and he assumed that Ashton was on speaker-phone. This was shit. He didn’t want to talk to her as much as he didn’t want to talk to his own girlfriend. Whatever.

“See, Ash? He won’t talk!”

“He’s probably tired, just let the poor man sleep.” he heard Ashton say over the line and Mikey rolled her eyes, glaring down at Luke.

“He’s hungover. That’s no excuse. I wanted to do something with him today!” she said into the phone, her green eyes cold. “But that’s ruined.”

“Listen, I know you’re mad, but you gotta let him make it up to you. I’ve gotta go take Cal’s dog to the vet, okay? Text me.” Ashton said over the line and Mikey quickly hung up, still looking at Luke and the blond pulled the other onto the bed with him. There was a yelp from the older blond, and she struggled to break free but Luke held her close to him.

“You keep yelling at me but you forgot, we could spend all day in bed with each other,” Luke mumbled and Mikey stopped fighting, and the other grinned. “See? We can do whatever you want to, tomorrow, okay?” he said and Mikey relaxed against him, tossing her phone onto the nightstand next to the bed.

“You kinda suck,”

“and you’re kinda hot.” Luke finished, placing a kiss to her cheek.

"Whatever."


	36. and i could never do that [cashton]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> calum is a dog walker, ashton is a genderfluid single mom who's got a screaming kid at 11:30pm. yep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HI WOW LONG TIME NO SEE  
> im gonna make this its own fic because its so long and i love it

Calum didn’t hate kids. He really didn’t, honestly, and kids seemed to love him just as much as he loved them, he just liked dogs more. They were like little babies, but easier to handle. To have. Hence the dog walking business. He loved them. It was his thing. Kids were not his thing, no matter how much he liked them. He wasn’t even sure if he’d want a daughter or a son -- or whatever they wanted to be -- to call his own, but that was not a matter to be discussed at any time soon. He was twenty, after all.

And those other things that needed to be discussed (him being broke, dog walking for money) also went out the window when he was walking by a cafe shop earlier that morning and met a fucking guy that made Calum blush more than he wanted to admit. More than he thought he was going to admit. A small, “sorry!” was squeaked out as Calum backed up, sputtering out apologies as he did so. There was a smaller hand wrapped around the guy’s, and a little girl was following behind him.

Oh Lord.

“Oh, it’s no problem, really, it was my fault, didn’t see where I was going…” the guy said, his coffee in one hand and the girl’s hand in the other. Calum just stood there awkwardly, watching, waiting patiently. Why? He wasn’t quite sure, but it just seemed to be the thing to do and the boy he bumped into smiled, and oh god, he was really pushing it. Why was he still standing there? Why was the boy still standing there? The dog he was currently walking was tugging at his leash, wanting to see the tiny girl, and the boy asked, “oh, what’s his name?”

Calum almost muttered out _his own name_ , because it took a minute to realize that he wasn’t talking about _him_ , but his dog he was walking. “Oh. Sadie is her name,” the Kiwi boy answered and the blond boy just nodded, “she can pet her if she wants. I’m just walking her, she isn’t mine, but she loves people.” Almost immediately, the little girl the boy was with squealed in delight and started petting the dog, and the blond boy laughed awkwardly. Calum didn’t blame him. The whole situation was awkward. Calum coughed a bit off to the side and ducked his head, things he did whenever he was uncomfortable.

“So, you’re in the dog walking business?” The boy asked, readjusting the sunglasses covering his face. He had dimples. Calum looked away from them, looked at his face instead, anything that wasn’t awkward, because this boy was cute but he probably had a wife and shit and Calum had nothing. Oh God.

“Yeah, I am!”

“Oh!” The boy grinned, “because I have a dog at home, who would love to be walked… I’m always busy with Adelaide and we’re always doing things for her class or whatever and so we never get to let Princess out.” It was quiet for a moment before he added, “and no, I didn’t name my own dog Princess. Adelaide did.” He gestured to the girl kneeling next to Sadie.

Calum couldn’t help but laugh, even though he felt the boy’s eyes on him, and he had to nod his head otherwise he was going to say something awkward. He cleared his throat, and nodded his head again like an idiot. He’s honestly tripping over himself for this guy, it’s not fair. “Yeah, sure!”

“Are you sure? I feel a little weird just asking you that after bumping into you. I’ll pay you extra.” The boy said and Calum glanced at little Adelaide petting the dog. Say something, Calum. Say something or he’ll think you’re weird... _er_ , really.

“Oh, no, it’s no big deal, haha. I’ll give you my phone number, and you can text me! Just tell me whenever you want me to come over.” Calum winked, oh God, he winked, but the boy didn’t seem to notice since Calum luckily had sunglasses on. That would’ve been embarrassing. However, the boy took out his phone from his pocket and Calum waited as he unlocked it, and whenever he looked up at the black-haired boy, he started to give him his number. Calum watched the boy’s thumbs click in the numbers, and he sighed a bit.

“Okay. Um, what’s your name?” he asked after a moment, and Calum paused. What would he say? He could say the actual name of the business, but he decided against it as he said his own name, and the boy smiled and tapped it in.

“And, you?” Calum asked after a moment, while the boy was talking to Adelaide to get off of the ground. He still paused, still watched the boy in front of him, still waiting for the name as the blond started to hold out his hand for his child, and Calum almost wanted to repeat the question he asked.

“Oh,” he said as he was partially turned, due to Adelaide tugging at his hand, “Ashton Irwin!”

Calum smiled and waved like he hadn’t just heard the cutest fucking name ever. Ashton Irwin. Oh God.

 

* * *

 

Calum had been called in a few times by that same Ashton Irwin, only to see and walk Princess, a German shepherd bigger than Sadie by a long shot. But that was okay though, since Calum didn’t mind, he’s seen bigger dogs and Princess wouldn’t have been a big problem. But that was different. This time, Ashton called him in, but at a much later time that what he was used to, along with the message _hurry quickly, please_ and it wasn’t really what he expected.

But he went anyway. Was he stupid? No. Would he have died in a horror movie? Probably. But that was beyond the point. He still drove over, he still went up to the small apartment, he still knocked on apartment number 3C. He still did all of those things, and he still knocked on the door and he still walked in whenever Ashton, curly hair a mess and glasses askew, answered the door. Calum almost didn’t want to come in whenever he heard a little girl scream, but he figured it was just his daughter because of how late it was and how upset Ashton looked.

“Sorry, I know that you do dog service and things, but… Adelaide won’t go to bed. It’s 11:30. I need her to go to bed!” Ashton explained, almost whining a bit and Calum had to refrain from laughing because it was almost hilarious seeing perfect Ashton all frazzled and frustrated. “She keeps screaming and I can’t get her to shut up!” As soon as Calum heard the scream from what he presumed to be Adelaide’s room, Ashton suddenly turned full-180 degrees on Calum and covered his face, underneath his glasses, with his hands and literally began to weep. “O-Oh, my god, she won’t be quiet…!”

Calum sighed and subconsciously stepped forward, wrapping the boy up in his arms and hugged him, hugged him as tight as he could. It felt a little weird, both morally and… physically, but whatever. “Hey, it’ll be fine, it’ll be fine. I’ll maybe help her stop screaming, okay?” Calum asked, even though this was not a good idea. He didn’t know how to handle screaming kids. Normally, if the kids that came to vet he worked part time at were screaming, their parents would take care of it. “Just, get some wine or something, take a drink, chill. Let me take care of it.” Those were big words for someone who didn’t even know if he could do it. Ashton pulled back and nodded his head, running a hand through his hair before turning to the kitchen. Calum slipped off his sneakers and headed back to Adelaide’s room, taking a deep breath before knocking on the pink door.

“Go away! I don’t wanna go to bed!” Calum heard her scream, and he paused, glancing back at the kitchen to see if Ashton could just come with him. Could just help him. But no, he told him to chill, which he really deserved. He couldn’t do this. But yet, he opened the door and saw Adelaide sitting on her bed, pouting and crying. She looked exactly like Ashton did whenever he pulled away from his hug. “C-Cal?”

“Hey, little bug, what’s wrong?” Calum stepped forward, sitting down on her pink mushroom chair. “Why don’t you wanna go to bed?”

Adelaide sniffled, her blond hair getting in her face, her hand, it was everywhere in curls and Calum could see where she got it from. He almost wanted to smile, but this was a _serious_ conversation and he didn’t want to upset Adelaide any more. “B-Because, I don’t want to go to school tomorrow.” She was a little quieter, a little more hesitant and Calum sighed, because he knew the feeling. School sucked. But that was whenever he was older, what the hell was happening with this girl? Why was she not wanting to go to school this young? That didn’t usually happen until middle school.

He moved closer to her, moved the chair closer to the bed and sighed once more, acting more like a parent to the child rather than just a dog walker for Princess, and he didn’t really know how to feel about that. Where was Ashton’s other friends to help him out? Where was his wife? He had said on multiple occasions that they weren’t there, but that was a bit obvious. It was a little weird how he had said ‘they’ though, like he was carefully planning that sentence out. Whatever. He shouldn’t be focusing on Ashton now, he should be focusing on Adelaide. “Why don’t you want to go to school tomorrow?”

A little whine. More digging through stuffed animals and her hair, more sniffles. “B-Because… I like this boy but he’s kind of mean to me and I tried to get him to stop, but he says his mom does it all the time!” Adelaide whined again, “but I tried to get him to stop… And I don’t want to go anymore. So if I don’t go to bed, it’ll be night forever and I won’t have to go to school anymore!”

Calum ran his fingers through his hair. “Sadly, hun, that doesn’t work. In about 15 minutes, it’ll be the next day. It’ll be midnight, on November 2nd.” Adelaide started to whine, to shriek, and Calum shushed her quickly. “And who is this kid anyway?”

“Lukas…” Adelaide paused her screeching to say, and Calum arched an eyebrow.

“Like, Lukas Hemmings? The second?”

“Um… I think?”

Calum rolled his eyes. Michelene “Michael” Clifford and her son, Luke, have been known to tease people -- Michael’s favorite being her husband, Luke. Calum knew the two much more than he thought, and with an assuring voice, he said, “don’t worry. I know the mom. I’ll tell her to tell her son to knock it off, so that you can go to sleep in peace. The mom, Michael, likes to tease her husband and so I guess he just picked up on that, which isn’t okay.” The boy ran his fingers through his hair once more. “So, I will tell them, and you could go to school tomorrow. Because honestly, school is cool.” He grinned, and Adelaide laughed despite the feelings she had earlier. “Now, just promise me you won’t scream at 11:45pm again?”

Adelaide giggled, nodded her head, and Calum held out his arms for a hug, which she gladly took. In his ear, she whispered, “Tell mommy I’m not mad at her anymore,” and before Calum could process what she had said, she stepped away and climbed into bed. The Kiwi boy nodded, said goodnight to her and turned off her light (after turning on her nightlight) and closed the door, walking out to another sobbing mess. This one, however, happened to have a wine glass in his hand and messy hair pulled back up into a bun. His glasses were on the coffee table by the couch, and Calum had to take a deep breath, run his hands through his blond streaks once more for the night, and walked up to him, taking a seat next to him, wrapping one arm around his shoulders.

It was quiet for a moment before he could hear Ashton mumble out, “you’re a much better parent than I am…!” followed by more sobs and finally, fucking _finally_ , Calum let out a laugh because he’s not a parent at all! He’s not even close! He doesn’t even have a girlfriend to make a kid with! Bullshit! Ashton looked up at him, an iciness in them that made Calum rethink his choices, because he didn’t know what he was thinking at all.

“I’m sorry, it’s just you can’t say that, at all. I’m not even a father! I don’t even have a girlfriend!” he said, restating his thought process. “You’re a much better parent than I ever could be.”

“But I saw you, she opened up to you…!” Ashton whined, hiding his face in the crook of the taller boy’s neck, and he sighed, taking the wine glass away from the blond and placed it on the coffee table. Too much chill. “She hugged you, you acted like her father and I could never do that!”

Calum paused a moment, his mouth agape. What did he mean by that? Was he literally saying he couldn’t be a father? What was going on? Calum swallowed and hugged him, wrapping his arms around him and resting his chin on the top of the boy’s head. “What do you mean, you can be a good father.”

“I c-can’t, because I’m not even a guy! Calum, don’t you understand?” He pulled away from the hug to look him in the eye, and the other boy swallowed once more, trying to get rid of the forming lump in his throat. Should he call her a girl now? “I’m not a guy and I can’t do it, I can’t be a good parent whenever she’s got two parents in one! All her kid's gonna know is that she's got a mom and a dad in one body!”

Calum watched her, watched how her eyes shifted around, purposely ignoring his eyes. He understood that. He didn’t understand how she was feeling, at all, but he understood the shifting of eyes so she didn’t have to look at someone. He got that bit. “Listen, Ashton. I think you’re doing a hell of a good job. Parenting is hard, but even if you're a mom or a dad or both, it's hard. Being a mom is even more so. It’s late, and you’re tired, and she’s tired, but she’s sleeping now and so you don’t have anything to worry about.” It was a moment before he then added, “I promise.”

Ashton shook her head, smiling bitterly at him and Calum suddenly felt attacked. He hadn’t even said anything and he still felt insulted. Like what he was telling him wasn’t true. It hurt. Although, what if he was too quick to assume? “I can’t do this. I'm a mother, but I can't do this.” It was quiet, but stern and definitely directed to the other boy and he swallowed once more, his hands falling from her shoulders to her waist. “N-no, I can’t do this because once you walk out that door, something’s gonna happen, she’s not gonna want to go and I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it because I’m not like you!”

“Then I’ll help! I’ve been helping all tonight, haven’t I? Who said that I was going to leave?” Calum spat out, his eyebrows furrowing together and honestly, that was the truth. Who said he was leaving? Who said he had to leave? It was nearing midnight anyway, there was no way in hell he was leaving this late. He would sleep on the couch if he had to, but even then he wasn’t sure if Ashton would be okay with that since this had never happened before. Ever. Never in this dog-walking business did he deal with a screaming child and a sobbing parent. Nope.

Ashton paused, looking at him, tears still falling down her cheeks and God, Calum wanted to just help the poor girl out. That’s why he was here, wasn’t it? The black-haired boy watched Ashton carefully, watching any movement like a predator on the hunt. Like a protector over the weak. Ashton was a mess and Calum just couldn’t help but step in and watch her and there was a moment before the blond’s arms were wrapped around his neck and lips were pressed up against each other messily, clumsily, but it was perfect. Calum didn’t know who really initiated the kiss, but he was glad nonetheless because now he was kissing her and that was all he ever really wanted anyway.

Ashton pulled away first, a breathy sigh coming from her throat, and she mumbled, “you don’t know how badly I wanted to do that…”

Calum laughed, kissed her lips again and answered back with, “I’m glad you did. Do you trust me now?”

“Hm?”

“Do you believe me whenever I say you’re a good parent?” Calum asked, and Ashton hesitantly nodded her head. “As long as you think it, you’ll be it, okay?” There was a bit of silence before he added, “and I can taste the wine in your mouth.”

Ashton giggled, ducking her head and Calum found that endearing. “Just… Don’t go, okay?”

“I won’t.”

“Good, because Adelaide likes you a lot,” Ashton slightly grinned at him, still a bit upset, “and I do too.”

**Author's Note:**

> hi guys! you guys are welcome to leave me ideas for prompts! you can just comment or go to my tumblr leothequeenn and leave me an ask there. or you can message me here too! I look forward to getting some! Cashton and Muke please though for this one:) xx

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Sodales](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8123263) by [takeitoffhemmo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/takeitoffhemmo/pseuds/takeitoffhemmo)




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